Klarinet Archive - Posting 000523.txt from 2004/07

From: Joseph Wakeling <joseph.wakeling@-----.net>
Subj: [kl] Dialogue de l'ombre double
Date: Thu, 15 Jul 2004 11:22:06 -0400

A few days ago I went crazy and bought a copy of the Deutsche Grammophon
recording of Pierre Boulez' Répons and Dialogue de l'ombre double. Why
crazy? Well, I already own a copy of this recording but it's in
Switzerland and I'm in Denmark. Besides, that copy has text only in
English because I bought it from the US. This copy has a Boulez
interview in the original French... ;-)

The works are for combinations of live instruments and electronics.
Répons is performed by a chamber orchestra, several soloists and
real-time transformations of the performed material. Dialogue de
l'ombre double is for solo clarinet plus electronically-transformed
material pre-recorded by the soloist. Both make dramatic use of spatial
effects, shooting about the sound from different loudspeakers and so
on. They're fantastic works and I can't recommend this disc enough.

However, the score for the Dialogue is a bit expensive (£125 last time I
was in the Universal Edition shop in London) so I was hoping someone on
the list might be able to advise me a bit about some things I'm not
clear on.

What I'm wondering is to what extent the "live" performance is just
that---live, unamplified---or whether there is any real-time
transformation of the live performer, as well as simply playback of
electronic tape. There seem to be a few moments where the live clarinet
and the electronic material overlap; it's not completely clear to me
whether they are (a) controlled by a technician, (b) triggered by events
in the live performance (as can be done with the IRCAM software) or (c)
involve some real-time processing of the live signal through the
loudspeaker system.

Thanks in advance,

-- Joe

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