Extract light from absolute darkness: the Spanish composer Alberto Posadas was marked by the exhibition dedicated to Pierre Soulages in 2009 at the Centre Pompidou. Opacity creates effects of intense light and transparence. This visual paradox is transferred to music: there is no longer a unique color, but vibrating material. Black inhabits Posadas’ entire oeuvre – his series Sombras, the Quatre scènes noires based on Goya… Tenebrae that blends together voice, instruments, and electronics is inspired by l’Office des Ténèbres, without being a religious work like Responsories by Tomas Victoria, the grand polyphonist of the Spanish Renaissance. Through their symbolic and their symbolism, the excerpts from Novalis, Stefan George, and Rilke selected by Posadas resonate with the Latin liturgical narrative. And, like in the choirs of the Renaissance that played with the dynamic of the "responsory" between the masses in an edifice, the voice, and the electronics are the protagonists of a composition for the entire space.
ALBERTO POSADAS TENEBRAE ; LA LUMIÈRE DU NOIR
TOMÁS LUIS DE VICTORIA TENEBRAE RESPONSORIES (excerpts)
Ensemble vocal EXAUDI
Ensemble intercontemporain
Duncan Ward Conductor
Thomas Goepfer IRCAM Computer Music Design
In connection with the thematic exhibition in the Modern collection: "LŒil écoute". Musée national d’art moderne, Centre Pompidou.
Works by Alberto Posadas
Artists
Alberto Posadas
Composer (b. 1967)
In 1988, Alberto Posadas met the composer Francisco Guerrero, who he considers to be his true master. With him, Posadas explored new forms using cominatory and fractal techniques...
