Creation : 27 September 1988 at Festival Musica (Strasbourg)
Musicians : 1-6 percussionists
Dedicated to : Percussions de Strasbourg
Comissioner : Ministère de la Culture et de la Communication
Publishing : Durand
Le Livre des Claviers comprises six relatively short pieces for the various keyboard games in percussion. Techniques related to keyboards have developed quite widely during the 20th century. If one compares Debussy’s use of the xylophone with that of Messiaen and then Boulez, one can see a real breakthrough, leading him (including marimba and xylomarimba) to a real soloist’s role. In recent years, however, continuous playing techniques with four sticks have pushed the possibilities even further. It is not a question of developing a technique, but of achieving musical configurations that were still impossible a few years ago: polyphony, and the succession of chords of different natures in a certain speed. This greatly motivated my choice of keyboards. On the other hand, the construction of new acoustic instruments such as the sixens has enabled me to tackle new cases in the sense that the notion of pitch is no longer predominant, or rather, is becoming more complex.
Piece I: 2 marimbas (2 players per instrument), 2 x 3 Thai gongs Study on an ostinato accentuated in an irregular manner. Chords distributed according to six criteria of density and harmonic polarisation, alternate according to irregular periodicities. The gongs mark the changes in harmonic configurations.
Piece II: Duo of marimbas (1 player per instrument) Twenty-six sequences make up this piece, ranging from amorphous structures (simple glissandi), through intermediate states (broken but directional lines) to sequences completely polarised around the centre. In this music, made of dots connected by lines, I have favoured a “cast” play that can simulate legato phrasing by the high speed with which certain lines must be played.
Piece III : Sextet of sixens The instruments, not being tuned to the same pitches, and moreover not having precise pitches (inharmonicity), it is at the level of the melodic movements (ascending and descending) and the rhythmic configurations that unity will be created, sometimes. Polyrhythmics and homorhythmics are the extreme axes of this piece, sometimes playing on rhythmic gradations (superimposition of six layers derived from each other, going from the most equal to the most irregular).
Piece IV: Vibraphone solo A textual variation of a basic structure, intersected in several places by a virtuoso and regular element. In addition to the four-stick techniques, I have developed here a technique that consists of smothering with the hand some blades while others still resonate. In this way, a harmonic stability can be maintained around which more ephemeral chords gravitate, thus creating a polyphonic texture. Piece V: 2 marimbas (2 players per instrument), 2 x 3 Thai gongs Amplification of piece I. The same basic material (actually a canon) is seen from various angles: harmonic instability or stability, different periodicities. The reunion of the two players (with four sticks) on the same instrument gives an extremely rich harmonic density.
Piece VI: Sixens Sextet More complex than Piece III, the latter plays mainly on the notion of “thickness of sound” where the same sound doubled to 2, 4 or 6 parts will create a “restraining” effect on the tuning of the instruments. Homorhythmic sequences, polyphonic states and global textures are constantly enriched, moving from the simplest to the most complex state.
Philippe Manoury