De Natura Sonorum è un titolo decisamente abusato nella musica contemporanea. Questa volta parliamo di un brano elettroacustico di Bernard Parmegiani composto nel 1975. Un pezzo che a me piace molto, almeno la prima parte, tutta giocata su pochi suoni montati in molti modi diversi.

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Ecco il piano completo dell’opera:

The first series is made up of five movements, most of which bring electronic and instrumental sounds, and less often concrete ones, into relation, generally in couples.

1. lncidents/Resonances brings sympathetic resonances of concrete sound events with processes that allow variable continuousness (prolongation of sound) of electronic sources into controlled play. The “incidents” arc opposed to punctual “accidents” of the second movement.
2. Accidentals/Harmonics often very brief events of instrumental origin arc brought in to modify the harmonic timbre from the continuum that they undercut or on which they are superposed. Elsewhere, the placing with pitches reduced to a minimum creates a zone of attention to other phenomena generally masked by the melodic form applied to the instrumental play.
3. A Geological sonority resembles flying over a landscape in which the different “sound’ levels will emerge on the surface one after the other. Electronic and instrumental sounds become confused in fusion, seen from such a height
4. Dynamic of the resonance is a microphonic exploration of a single sound body that is made to resonate by means of different types of percussion
5. Elastic study juxtaposes sounds coming from the different “playing” of elastic of instrument skins (gold-beaters skin, zarb) and vibrating strings and different instrumental gestures analogous to this “playing:’ but created by the use of electronic generators of white noise.
6. Timbre conjugations last movement of this series uses the same material to apply rhythmic forms on a continuum of which the timbre is in continual variation

The second series falls back on electronic and concrete means whilst the instrumental sources only appear in a fleeting way.
lncidences/pulsations is a son of recall of the first movement and leads very rapidly to

8. Ephemeral nature interplay of short-lived instrumental and electronic sounds rather more individualised by the form of the internal trajectory than the material itself.
9. Induced matter just as molecular effervescence creates transformations of state, it would appear that the different stages of the sound material’s states here are products of each other, as if by induction
10. Intermixed wavelengths the audible vibrations of pizz interfere with the waves that we imagine “visible” like water droplets on a surface of the same material,
11. Full and free can he listened to as a study of the damped energies of bodies set into motion then rebounding. Such are the hollow “bubbles’ and the points bringing into relationship the heaviness of some, and the very fine movements of others,
12. Points versus fields here we have the idea of perspective of different sound themes that weave a sort of field network. imprison the repeated punctuated elements of the foreground and absorb them progressively so as to give free reign to the fields and melodic sound that opens out.