Dérives

Dérives, composed by Gérard Grisey in 1973-74, is, along with Périodes and Partiels, one of the seminal compositions for the spectral music movement.

This piece for two orchestral groups, a sinfonietta and a full orchestra (interestingly, the ensemble also includes an electric guitar), employs a technique that can be defined as instrumental additive synthesis, in which the instruments create a timbre through the sum of many components. We speak of timbre and not harmony because it is in this sense that the sound ensemble is conceived, to the point that instruments are often required to tune on the harmonics of a basic sound and not on the tempered scale.

Sound as the generator of global form, according to the poetics of spectralism expressed in this programmatic declaration by Grisey himself:

We are musicians and our model is sound not literature, sound not mathematics, sound not theatre, visual arts, quantum physics, geology, astrology or acupuncture

[cit. in Fineberg, Joshua (2006). Classical Music, Why Bother?: Hearing the World of Contemporary Culture Through a Composer’s Ears. Routledge. ISBN-10: 0415971748, ISBN-13: 978-0415971744]

And more:

Spectralism is not a system. It’s not a system like serial music or even tonal music. It’s an attitude. It considers sounds, not as dead objects that you can easily and arbitrarily permutate in all directions, but as being like living objects with a birth, lifetime and death. This is not new. I think Varese was thinking in that direction also. He was the grandfather of us all. The second statement of the spectral movement — especially at the beginning — was to try to find a better equation between concept and percept — between the concept of the score and the perception the audience might have of it. That was extremely important for us.

This last statement is taken from an interview with David Bundle (original link is now broken).

Gérard Grisey – Dérives (1973-74), for two orchestral groups

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