Tectonics 2022 Artist Profile
Pascale Criton
Pascale Criton (b. 1954) is a French composer born in Paris. She studied composition with Ivan Wyschnegradsky, Gérard Grisey and Jean-Etienne Marie. She subesquently trained in electro-acoustic music at Cirm (Nice) and in musical computing at Ircam (Paris), and gained a PhD in musicology in 1999. Her music explores fine details of sound variability: a specialist of microtonality, she uses specific tunings and computing to foreground subtle acoustic effects the spatialisation of listening. In 2015, Pascale edited Gilles Deleuze, la pensée-musique, a testimony of her encounter with the French philosopher Gilles Deleuze regarding music. She has collaborated closely with music ensembles such as l’Ensemble 2e2m, l’Itinéraire, Accroche Note and Dedalus, with soloists Juliet Fraser, Silvia Tarozzi and Deborah Walker, and with music research studios such as InaGRM (Radio-France), GMEM (Marseille), GMEA (Albi), SCRIME (Bordeaux) and ART ZOYD (Valenciennes). Her monographic CD ‘Infra’, released on the label Potlatch, was awarded the Charles Cros prize. Her works are published by Jobert Editions (Lemoine distr.) and available from Art&Fact.
Alter for Soprano and orchestra
Soprano : Juliet Fraser
duration : circa 18’
Commissioned by 大象传媒 Radio 3
I started writing Alter during the first Covid-19 lockdown. A state of stupor suddenly submerged our lives, projecting us into a different world. Alter plays on the idea of otherness, as well as alteration and transformation. The reference points are unstable, driven by minute reciprocal influences, bordering on acoustic phenomena such as beats and resulting sounds. Listening to these fragile relationships invites one to let go, to an attitude less focused on individual will. The voice, immersed in the instrumental flow, finds its place through sligth differences coupled with the instrumental timbres. The text is a variation on this shifting world expressed in French, English and Arabic, as well as words written by Juliet Fraser during the confinement.
in french :
J’ai commencé à écrire Alter pendant le premier confinement de la Covid-19. Un état de sidération a soudain submergé nos vies, nous projetant dans un monde autre. Alter joue sur l’idée d’altérité, ainsi que d’altération et de transformation. Les repères sont instables, mus par d’infimes influences réciproques voisinant des phénomènes acoustiques tels que des battements et des sons résultants. L’écoute de ces relations fragiles invite à un lâcher prise, à une attitude moins axée sur la volonté individuelle. La voix, immergée dans le flux instrumental, fraie sa place par petites différences couplées avec les timbres instrumentaux. Le texte est une variation autour de ce monde changeant exprimé en français, en anglais et en arabe, ainsi que des mots écrits par Juliet Fraser durant le confinement.
