Arturo Fuentes (1975)

Plexus (2009)

for tenor saxophone and live electronics

electronic work

  • General information
    • Composition date: 2009
    • Duration: 9 mn 40 s about
    • Publisher: LondonHall Editions
    • Commission: Pedro Bittencourt
Detailed formation
  • tenor saxophone

Premiere information

  • Date: 26 February 2010
    Location:

    Allemagne, Karlsruhe, ZKM Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie, Kubus Hall


    Performers:

    Pedro Bittencourt, saxophone ténor.

Information on the electronics
Electronic device: temps réel, sons fixés sur support

Observations

Il existe une version avec sons fixés.

Program note

In Plexus, Fuentes was interested in establishing a close relationship between the instrument and the electronics. With the electronics he was looking for a dark and rough color, static throughout the piece, almost a monolithic form. In contrast to this, the saxophone has a lot of movement and color. During the composition of the work, a poetic idea had been appealing to him: the electronics as a shadow of the saxophone, tracing out its profile. To achieve a disturbing and persistent character, the electronics is restricted to the lower register for longer passages (as if things were not changing), pulling the saxophone down. In opposition to the darkness of the work, at other points Fuentes was interested in reinforcing the harmonic range of the saxophone, pointing it upwards, so to speak, “into the light”. In this vein, the composer wanted to explore a tone colour based upon inconsistent aesthetic concepts and containing a load of intentions, operations and actions at the level of the acts of composition, and, of course, of musical interpretation. The work is situated between heaviness and lightness, both of which Fuentes always intends to contrast in his music. The score was revised for the interpretation by Pedro Bittencourt. In recent years, a deep personal collaboration and friendship has developed between the two. Fuentes dedicates this new version to him with great affection.

ZKM