Creation : 7 July 1971, Grenade, Spain, Music and Dance Festival, Patio de los Leones, in La Alhambra
Commissioner : General Commissioner for Music for the “10 Days of Music” in Toledo
Duration: 18′
Musicians: 6 percussionists
Publishing : Salabert
Necronomicón is one of Tomás Marco’s plays that combines a magical but terrifying context. In fact, the title of the work is inspired by the nightmarish world of Howard Phillips Lovecraft: Necronomicón is a treatise of fiction, imagined by the American writer, whose etymology refers to the laws of the dead. The title suggests an atmosphere of necromancy with its implicit rituals, a powerful image that is consistent with the almost ceremonial distribution of the six percussionists who play the work, almost inviting a complementary staging. In fact, the subtitle of the piece is a sort of note of intent: “Choreography for six drummers”. Necronomicón was premiered at the Alhambra during the Granada Festival by Les Percussions de Strasbourg, who performed it all over the world during the 1970s. According to the composer, in his programme note for the creation of the work, ‘there is a very strict formal work that can even be observed in the instrumental economy of each section’. This conceptual formalism contrasts with the rather indeterministic writing of the sextet: the notation of durations is very approximate, and the composer delegates to the musicians the choice of pitches for instruments such as the marimba or the vibraphone. The sextet can be divided into four parts numbered by the composer but continuously linked together. The sextet can be divided into four parts, numbered by the composer but continuously linked. The first is devoted to metal instruments, the second to wooden percussion and the third to skins, to finally arrive at a final section bringing together an arsenal of instruments of all types. Necronomicón thus shifts from the delicate and hieratic colours of the beginning, in a way evocative of electronic sounds – combining three excited tam-tams with a bow, two tam-tams immersed in water and twelve Thai gongs – to the rhythmic whirlwind of the end, reinforced by the sounds of sirens.
José L. Besada (Université de Strasbourg/Ircam)