voltage (2024)

for solo harpsichord

12'

Composed for and premiered by Ninon Hannecart-Ségal, on a commission from the La Grange-Fleuret Music Library. The premiere took place on Saturday, October 12th, 2024, during Aux Armes, Contemporains! #2 — Queendom, at La Scala Paris.

[SCORE PREVIEW]

voltage for harpsichord solo explores the disconnection between sound and the gesture that produces it, aiming to evoke experiences of involuntary musical imagery (INMI) through the temporal and acoustic displacement between action and resonance. It is the second piece — after drift (2023) for electric guitar and harpsichord — to employ the “downstairs” technique, which requires cotton gloves or mittens and enables the performer to create rapid rhythmic ostinatos and sustained drones on keyboard instruments.