Creation : 23 November 2016, Théâtre de Hautepierre, Strasbourg, France
Musicians : 6 percussionists electroacoustic
Duration : 23′
Commissioned by SWR Freiburg
Composed in 2011-12, for the 50th anniversary of the Percussions de Strasbourg and in collaboration with the Experimentalstudio SWR Freiburg, this work for percussion and electronics contains a rather complex “staging”. The various instruments are arranged on the letter M written on stage, the M of my name Menezes, as I was also 50 years old in 2012. Hence its title: the Italian word S(c)enario (/ʃeˑnario/ with “c”, but also /seˑnario/ without “c”) has a double meaning. It refers to the well-elaborated scenario of the instruments, but also to Gioseffo Zarlino’s “numero senario” – which is the number 6 (historical formation of the Percussions de Strasbourg). Between several of Zarlino’s arguments for this number in his treatise Le Istitutioni Harmoniche (1558), he quotes in chapter 14 of part one (“Che dal numero Senario si comprendeno molte cose della natura dell’arte”) Plato’s description of space: “according to Plato the number 6 refers to the different positions: over, under, in front, behind, to the right and to the left” [1]. This definition was decisive for the conception of space in my piece, with a more important central position (the only one that is with electronics and on which all the soloists of the ensemble play during the work), this position being considered as a kind of sacred place.
Flo Menezes
[1] «Et sei, secondo Platone, le differenze delli Siti, overo positioni; Sù, Giù, Avanti, Indietro, Destro, Sinistro» (Gioseffo Zarlino. Le Istitutioni Harmoniche. A Facsimile of the 1558 Venice Edition. New York: Broude Brothers, 1965, p. 24).