René Mense
Composer

 

 

 

... en toute rigueur. (2000)
for piano, 4'

Audio Sample (MP3) 4.1 MB

…en toute rigueur. (“with all rigor”) was inspired by an idea expressed in a letter by the novelist Gustave Flaubert:

 “One should hope that art will not cease to develop and to improve in the future (...), its form has ceased to satisfy the highest desire of the spirit. (...) In its highest purpose, at least, it is, for us, the past. It has forfeited for us its truth and its life. It invites us to philosophical reflection that in no way professes to effect its renewal, but to recognize its essence with all rigor.”

With ...en toute rigueur., in three steps, I broke up a four-part double canon into its components. Both pairs of canons, in accordance with late Middle Age style, are laid out in two time signatures, i.e., a duple and a triple meter, which results in the voices of the pairs with the shorter values surpassing the other voices. I took up this fragmentation of the initially constructed polyphony and stretched it out further until virtually only the vibration of a sound remained, having the effect of “remaining frozen in time”.

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