orchestra
Hommage à Vasarely has for its inspiration the lines and networks, grids, superimpositions and transparencies, and optical-kinetic illusions often experienced in the art works of the great 20th century painter and designer, Victor Vasarely (1906-1997).
Played without a pause, the work is divided into five sections, each of which explores the sonic possibilities and spatial properties inherent within a somewhat non-standard way of arranging the orchestral instruments on stage.
Rows and columns of instruments are so situated that, moving from left to right (from high to low sounds), one would hear column after column (12 in all) of pitches played in unison (one pitch per column), where each column is separated from the next by the interval of a perfect fifth, thus producing all 12 chromatic tones.
Moving from front to back (from strings to brass), one would hear row after row (8 in all) of the 12-note perfect fifth chord separated from each other by a kind of timbral interval.
[x-15]
- Score available at CMC, Région du Québec.
- Recording: available at SMCQ’s office