PLEIN-JEU

This work was commissioned by the Centre National de Création Musicale /CIRM in Nice and first performed on 19 November 2010.

Plein-Jeu (a term for the full registration of the pipe organ) belongs to a cycle of three pieces titled Jeux (Games) and comprising Hors-jeu ("Offside"), Jeu and Plein-Jeu. Hors-jeu for percussion and electronics was created in 2005 at IRCAM in Paris, while "Jeu" has not been written yet.

In Hors-Jeu the performer's gestures had little impact on the electronics, as implied by the tittle. In Plein-Jeu, on the contrary, every element of the electronics is the consequence and extension of an instrumental gesture even if delayed. Interestingly, in 2009 I wrote a piece for organ and two trombones that left a trace in this work. Pleinjeu's electronics take on the role of the organ, with the aim of generating a kind of meta-accordion sound which is, nonetheless at times closer to the sound of the former.

From a formal perspective Plein-Jeu is in two main sections, in turn structured as a series of variations interspersed by parentheses where the music becomes noisier and more agressive. Every parenthesis represents a release from the sonic tension accumulated in the piece so far , almost a kind of sonic climax mixing pleasure and pain. Throughout the work gestures and sounds return obsessively and often in a diorderly manner, and end up contaminating each other to generate increasingly similar textures. The coda is made up of long threads , the final result the deterioration of the tension building gestures and multiple musical situations occuring from the start of the piece.

Philippe Hurel