FIGURES

At the outset, two rhythmically incompatible linear patterns are superimposed, one chaotic and always out of time, on the clarinet, the other in perfectly regular eighth notes, on the vibraphone. After an initial dynamic expansion dominated by the former, the latter launches prestissimo into a decisive, energetic first solo in permuted intervals, with a mechanical rhythmic pattern but marked by asymmetrical accents. The clarinet soon joins its companion – who has embarked on a second ascending phase – but only to sporadically support its accented notes. But it’s in the middle section of the work that the two protagonists really come together, first in a series of very rapid rising arpeggios, then in beautiful note-holding, where the bass clarinet’s timbre gently enters the vibraphone’s resonance.
This static moment is followed by a dialogue of brief interjections and intersecting notes with extremely contrasting dynamics. It is in the final section of the work that the parallelism of their discourse celebrates the definitive understanding of the two instruments. Once again, their animated conciliabulum takes up the hammered sequence, with its displaced vibraphone accents, but in two voices, sometimes speeding it up, sometimes slowing it down in triplets.
Daniel Durney

Comment

This text is exactly what I could have emphasized in this duet. As in Aulodie, I sought a certain balance between the formal interplay of certain motifs, and their integration within a “narrative” evolving from almost hostile indifference between the partners to an increasingly animated understanding. The use of the bass clarinet as a soloist is a fairly recent acquisition, and requires great virtuosity here, particularly in the use of the high register, which is not in the instrument’s usual repertoire.