Loïc Destremau
According to the Bellows; Cycles of Discording Echoes (2023)
ABCDE / Study for Accordion
Dur. c. 6′
Commissioned by and written for José Valente
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Composed with support from the Danish Composers’ Society
Supported by Koda’s Cultural Funds Støttet af Kodas kulturelle midler.
Edition·S publications are supported by the Danish Arts Foundation / Edition·S udgivelser er støttet af Statens Kunstfond
ABCDE / Study for Accordion
Background
This commission has its roots in José Valente’s doctoral studies in Gdansk on the “Idiomatic Compositional Process for Classical Accordion” – a collaborative project developed between Valente and four Danish composers with the aim of contributing to the Danish classical accordion literature. The focus is on research and analysis of the compositional difficulties in writing for solo classical accordion and alongside this the establishment of solutions to these problems. In this regard, the compositions were required to cover a set of extended techniques for the instrument as a starting point for technical writing and performance research. To this end the compositions were also required to be kept completely solo, acoustic, and conservatively playable: no audioequipment involved, no gadgets, other instruments or preparations of the instrument, no visual (e.g. theatrical, scenic) elements etc.
Program Note
Perspective – as a notional distance within the ear, eye and perceiving mind – sets up the starting point of applying natural audio(visual) phenomena such as echo and wagon-wheel effects to the acoustic accordion. A procedure of exploring the perspectives on a) solo-voice/instrument/performer vs. plural/polyphonic constellations, as well as the perspectives on b) algorithmic music generated from nature vs. the human performer, and lastly c) an exploration of rhythmical, harmonic and circulating patterns and textures to challenge the very core sound and physical source of the presented music – the control of the accordion bellows itself.
A journey into the core of the instrument; playing with the fragile control of the bellows to produce several overlayed echoes – a sort of echo polyphony contracting into large arpeggiated chords which in turn transform into a repeated scale-wheel – yet a wheel trying to catch its own tail by restarting the scale/arpeggiated chord before it’s even finished. The result resembles the wagon-wheel effect but auditively (instead of visually), created with a solo acoustic accordion.
It is strongly advised to memorize sections [B] and [D] by heart due to their high tempo.
The general character of the piece is to be thought of as a robotic rendering of natural acoustic phenomena (echoes, wagon-wheel effect) and should be performed with rhythmic precision. The first section [A] can be rhythmically tricky and it is advised to listen to the MIDI-rendering and attempt to approach this digital precision when performing the piece.
Thanks
Special thanks to Rudiger Meyer for helping out with the engraving and layout of the score, to Krešimir Lulić for his curiosity and creativity, leading to ideas on artistic angles and notation, and sincere gratitude to José Valente for his invitation to the research project, for bringing the work to life, and for his assistance throughout the compositional process with his expertise and willingness to explore the capabilities and idiomatic aspects of playing and composing for the instrument.
Grace notes Always to be played as late (before the beat) as possible, e.g. bar 28:
Though visually starting before the last cluster in left hand, the grace notes should be played as late as possible, in this case after the last cluster.
Pitch bend, by sustaining the same note but bending the pitch with bellows pressure and dynamics following naturally.
‘+’ notehead indicates a register click: click any register on the right or left side, yet should be from the same side for every ‘echo-section’.
‘ ×’ button noise/key click: tap the keys in a percussive manner.
‘△’ notehead indicates use of left hand air-button. Air noise and no pitch.
Chromatic cluster chord
▶ Gradual transition, to be started immediately and steadily transformed into the next thing (e.g. chord → cluster).
Sustained notes: lines optically indicate how long the notes are to be held.
Missing ledger lines indicate no specific cluster chord position but higher than the previous one, so that the result is a continuous upward moving staccato cluster chord.
Left-hand converter: tap/hit the converter key for a percussive sound.
to
accelerate bellows shake meanwhile keeping tempo
grad.
(non-legato)
Optimally play all 12 notes. Alternatively, skip the first two and play them as “10-tuples” instead.
keys grad. harder)
closer to staccato / non legato as poss.
Molto non legato (fino [E])
leggiero
keep diminishing bellows pressure. only air noise and air button attack, no release click.