Work

Éclats de voix (1991), 14m51s
14-track tape
  • Commission: CKUT FM, with support from the CCA
  • Premiere: September 26, 1991, CKUT FM (Montréal, Québec)

To Martine Blain

The primary visual imagery of the title (Bursts of Voices), the fragmentation of the voice into little shatters, is augmented by the connotation of anger — a child’s sudden anger which appears like a tornado, to disappear just as quickly. The voice is of an 11-year-old child who wholeheartedly joined in the game of recording dozens of sounds from the Dictionnaire des bruits by Jean-Claude Trait and Yvon Dulude. The work is divided into five sections which represent childhood ‘states’ and a corresponding sonorous parameter. These different sections are presented one after the other in concert, or separately when broadcast on radio.

Éclats de voix was produced at the composer’s studio and at the Groupe de recherches musicales (GRM) in Paris from recordings of the voice of Marie-Hélène Blain. It was premiered on September 26, 1991 in stereo by CKUT FM in Montréal. Éclats de voix was commissioned by CKUT with support from the Canada Council [for the Arts]. The present version is a stereo recording of 14-track sound diffusion realized at The Banff Centre for the Arts (engineers: Antonio Oliart and Stephanie Rogers; assistant: Jennifer Lewis) in July, 1993. The piece was awarded the 1st Prize by Jury and tied for the Public’s Prize at the 2nd Prix international Noroit-Léonce Petitot (Arras, France, 1991) and recorded on the compact disc Prix international Noroit-Léonce Petitot 1991 (NOR2). It was also awarded a Mention at the Stockholm Electronic Arts Award Competition (Sweden, 1992), an Honorable Mention at the Prix Ars Electronica (Linz, Austria, 1993) and a 1st Mention at the Bourges International Electroacoustic Competition (France, 1993).

Work Discography

oeuvre@14207