Musical Category Electroacoustic Music ("tape music")
Instrumentation (general) Electroacoustics
Premiere
Date 2009/Sep/19
Performer(s)
Loudspeaker Orchestra, António Ferreira (sound projection), Miso Studio (musical development)
Organization/Event Miso Music Portugal - Música Viva Festival 2009
Venue Centro Cultural de Belém - Small Auditorium
Town Lisbon
Country Portugal
Program Notes
In the XVII century, François Couperin composed a small piece for harpsichord denominated Les Barricades Mysterieuses. There was always some speculation concerning this enigmatic title: it could be an insinuation to the women’s Baroque dress code (corsets) or an allusion the harmonic structure of the piece, a quasi-erotic game of cadences articulated with the left/right hand playing that this piece requires. The evocative power of this title also inspired several books and poetry as well as a painting by R. Magritte (1961). Accordingly, the Barricade is mysterious because it prevents us to “move” or to look with clarity, while being invisible at the same time. It is an ambiguous erotic, gallant game, so beloved of the Baroque ethos that was tentatively translated both into the acousmatic instrumentation and into the quasi-contra punctual structure of the present composition.
This composition was commissioned by Miso Music Portugal.