Tristan Murail - Territoires de l'oubli (1977) pour piano

Territoires de l'oubli (1977) pour piano
Composer: Tristan Murail (b. 1947)
Performer: Marilyn Nonken
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"Territoires de l'oubli was written in 1977 for the French composer-pianist Michaël Levinas, who gave the first performance in Rome, in 1978. This piece, Murail's longest single-movement work to date, is a massive exploration of the piano's resonance, unfolding in a huge curve of continuously evolving textures. Murail has remarked of the piece that "instead of considering the piano as a mere percussion instrument (hammers hitting strings), Territoires emphasizes a different idiomatic characteristic of the instrument: a group of strings whose vibration is caused by sympathetic resonance or by direct action of the hammers." Murail further notes that the work is written "for the resonances, not the attacks which are considered as "scars" on the continuum." For this reason, the sustaining pedal is held down throughout the entire piece. The work perpetually slides between regular, repetitive moments of stability, and chaotic, dense textures which often approach noise. The most stable moments often make a special feature of iambic, "heart-beat" rhythms. The work constantly plays upon the ambiguity between harmony and timbre - the harmony is chosen according to the resonance characteristics of the piano, producing several striking transformations of the piano's sound: for example, at the end of the work, a form of "vibrato" is obtained by playing a fundamental simultaneously with an E-flat acting as its seventh harmonic. The true intonation of the seventh harmonic, heard in the resonance of the fundamental, beats against the equally tempered E-flat in the piano's tuning. At several points in the piece, clusters of deep bass notes are heard, producing a mass of higher harmonics which form the basis of the harmony of the following section: in this way a continuous harmonic "chain" is built through out the work. The extreme continuity of Territoires does not prevent it from being one of Murail's most evocative and dramatic pieces, especially in the wild cadenza of descending and ascending chords near the end."
~Julian Anderson
Source: www.tristanmur...
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For education, promotion and entertainment purposes only. If you have any copyrights issue, please write to unpetitabreuvoir(at)gmail.com and I will delete this video.

[@scriabinismydog2439]

Fun fact: Michäel Levinas, the dedicatee of this piece, is the son of the celebre phenomenologist philosopher Emmanuel Levinas.

[@skylarlimex]

mais trop bien ! j'espérais que quelqu'un le ferait et voila, merci beaucoup

[@benhavey4107]

Thank you for making the score video of this wonderful piece! Truly one of the most important piano works of the past few decades.

[@Remi-B-Goode]

Quelles découvertes! merci pour le partage !

[@pianomanhere]

Aspects of this astonishing piano work are akin to the multilayered 'musics' in Luciano Berio's "Sequenza IV." Even if not intended by the composer, the notational layout almost inspires a certain amount of 'liberty' to be taken with the score... I personally would not do that unless the impetus to such liberties (or encouragement of them) is clearly laid out in the prefatory notes or within the score itself. Some other commenters here have specified certain inaccuracies in the performance, which I certainly cannot dispute both for (1) insufficient familiarity with this piece and (2) not keeping track of every note as the piece progresses. Thank you for posting this.. I love it and if I had more time remaining in life, I'd try to learn it. 🙂

[@machida5114]

quite delicious ........

[@jtchapman01]

0:30 treize couloeurs... ?

[@giulianocomoglio]

I'm afraid the performer took a bit too much liberty here. The score is free in many aspects, but if you have a clear "8th - dotted 8th" you should stick to it. Same with many dynamics. Don't get me wrong, it's a beautiful recording. But I think a piece like this deserves way more attention to the detail.

[@notnek202]

Horrible