Gilles Gobeil: Trilogie d’ondes (DVD-A): liner notes

electroradio

Trilogie d’ondes

Gilles Gobeil: Binet-Audet

Trilogie d’ondes

empreintes DIGITALes | IMED 0576 | 2005

DVD-A 25.00 CA$

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About this Trilogy

by Suzanne Binet-Audet |imed_0576-0001|

Gilles Gobeil’s body of work to date has been characterized by a rupture or break æsthetics, in which large-scale musical gestures are developed and brought to their acme before being immediately crushed into silence. It is a musical way of being, of breathing, a natural mark, a style, immediately identifiable and thus much more than a habit. The Trilogie d’ondes is testimony to this approach, so deeply rooted in the composer’s musical thought.

The ondes Martenot’s electronic timbre and acoustic resonance are perfectly suited to the musical fabric of the electroacoustic tape part, turning it into a rich and complex mixed work. In places the instrument melds almost perfectly with the tape, while in others the ondes stand out from the sonic material, due either to the expressive quality of some melodic interventions or the contrast between the ethereal quality of the timbre and the colorful complexity of the tape sounds. In this case, Gilles Gobeil has chosen to rely mostly on the musician’s expressive accuracy in addition to virtuosity.

Among the various contributions from the ondes, two themes stand out and underpin the entire structure: the “wrench theme,” which is always tightly woven into the tape and manifests itself through a long rising glissando, and the “cell theme” — or “soul theme” — a cell consisting of four neighboring, distempered notes.

Voix blanche
The wrench theme, with its slow dramatic build-up, appears at the very beginning of this movement. Halfway through, the soul theme emerges, very legato. Following its long unfolding, it will be reintroduced in a form that is more spelled-out than linear, a form which will become definitive in the other two parts of the trilogy. Inhabited by a subtle form of poetry, this is the most lyrical movement of the cycle.

Là où vont les nuages…
This movement features a different technique. The ondes are almost always used as a trigger for prerecorded sound elements that are juxtaposed with the ondist’s playing. Through the ondes’ various interventions, the aforementioned themes are transformed into something more closely related to a sense of traveling. This movement is full of vitality and playfulness; at times, sound masses are built and taken down at vertiginous speed.

La perle et l’oubli
Inspired by an apocryphal initiatory text from the second century, this piece consists of twelve sequences, six of which are variations on the “soul theme” cell played by the ondes. In this movement, the ondes play the part of the soul in its journey of incarnation. The final coda brings back the wrench and soul themes. The latter, modified one last time, closes the work in the bass register; its missing fourth note seems to irradiate from the dark aura of the last note played.

Suzanne Binet-Audet [English translation: François Couture, iii-05]


About the ondes Martenot

by Suzanne Binet-Audet |imed_0576-0002|

Maurice Martenot (1898-1980), a trained cellist and radiotelegrapher for the French army during World War I (1914-18), fell under the spell of the mobile and very pure electronic vibration of the new triode lamps he was working with.

Following the example of several other scientists at the time, including Lee de Forest (1873-1961), the inventor of the triode lamp to be used in the Audion, his instrument from 1915, the German researcher Jorg Mager, the Russian Leon Theremin (Lev Sergeyevich Termen, 1896-1993) and his eponymous instrument (in 1917), and Friedrich Trautwein (1988-1956) and his Trautonium (1930), which Paul Hindemith (1895-1963) would compose for, Maurice Martenot bustles about this electronic sound that has been newly brought into the world. He is trying to harness it to a true musical instrument, one that would cater to a musician’s most subtle expressive intentions.

Until his death in 1980, Maurice Martenot tirelessly endeavoured to improve his ondes. And what a long way he went, from the first prototype in 1928, with its remote playing similar to the Theremin’s, to the current transistorized version! Through these transformations, the ever monophonic instrument would gain acoustic resonators and two playing modes: one using a finger ring that allows countless glissandi options and the other using a keyboard, allowing for increased virtuosity. The right hand determines the pitches and vibrato, while the left shapes the nuances, attacks and phrasings with the help of a key, and controls the timbre tabs.

More electronic instruments have been invented since and are now omnipresent in our musical universe. Because of its sensory approach closely linked to the performer’s nervous system and its flexibility that allows it to respond to the performer’s slightest musical intention, the Martenot remains unlike any other. It is often considered a forerunner of today’s electronic instruments, but it is actually somewhat of a slightly eccentric colleague: the rationale behind its creation keeps it closer to the great instrument-making tradition. That is probably why it made it through the 20th century and is still being included in new compositions. Thanks to its 80-year history and large and rich repertoire, the Martenot has obviously secured itself a spot in music history.

Suzanne Binet-Audet [English translation: François Couture, iii-05]


Thanks

by Suzanne Binet-Audet, Gilles Gobeil |imed_0576-0003|

I would like to thank Gilles Gobeil for his Trilogie d’ondes, an inspired and magnificent work that expands the repertoire of the ondes Martenot and also contributes to the distinctive color of our homegrown electroacoustic music. I am also grateful to the Canada Council for the Arts for its financial support.

Suzanne Binet-Audet

Thanks to Marcelle Deschênes, Monique Jean, and Olivier Bélanger. A special thank you to Suzanne Binet-Audet, whose support, passion and enormous talent allowed me to complete this wonderful project.

Gilles Gobeil

[English translation: François Couture, iii-05]

Gilles Gobeil: Trilogie d’ondes (DVD-A): liner notes

Prices are in Canadian dollars — 1.00 CA$ ~ 0.98 US$ ~ 0.71 € ~ 0.65 £ ~ 88.83 ¥ ~ 1.7 AU$ ~ 5.31 DKK ~ 5.72 NOK ~ 6.92 SEK — and include handling, shipping and applicable taxes.


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