ACHÉRON

Notice

After Styx (1984), Léthè (1985) and Éridan (1986), Achéron takes up the symbolism of the rivers of Greek Hades, this time as a tribute to the memory of Iannis Xenakis, to whom I also dedicated Melanga, for Javanese gamelan, voice and sampler, in the same year.

For this short piece, thanks to Daniel Ciampolini, I discovered a percussion instrument recently invented in the USA and marketed under the names spring coil or spring drum. It’s a drum built like a string drum, but where the string attached to the center of the membrane is replaced by a long, thin steel spring. It is played in a variety of ways, producing very prolonged low resonances, with a cavernous darkness well suited to the funereal mood of the beginning and end of the work. The middle section, on the other hand, deploys the violently sparkling timbre of the glockenspiel.