marimba and processing

Traces is cycle of solo pieces with real time transformation. In the manner of a personal diary, the successive Traces address the compositional problematic of the moment I ‘ll write them. My intention was to create an environment that, by electronics means, transforms and transcends the space and nature of the soloist. Traces IV for marimba and live electronics belongs to another cycle within this cycle of Traces formed by Traces III for French Horn and live electronics and Traces V for clarinet and live electronics. These 3 pieces form the “Nocturnes”. Even-though we never hear in Traces IV, a single note of these two instruments (fr.hrn &cl.), their presence is omnipresent. Every single electronic treatment that the marimba undergoes, is modeled by the other two instruments: the harmonic content is related to the spectral content of the french horn and clarinet fundamentals, all the marimba resonances uses clarinet and french horn models, marimbas delays are often filtered by these two instruments ad so on and so forth… Traces IV is the central piece of “Nocturnes”, its formal structure in three movements is a miniature image of the form of the whole triptych.