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The compositions on this double album span a period of two decades and can certainly be regarded as representative of the variety in the oeuvre of French composer Joël-François Durand (*1954), with microtonality and quarter tones as important characteristics (here perfectly explained) and quarter tones. Both can already be found in his String Trio from 1981, which is recorded as his 'official' opus 1. Further in time, the importance of microtones in his work increased considerably, in melodic and harmonic respects, but also in texture.
However, about five years ago an important turning point occurred when Durand linked the compositional 'functionality' of microtonality with what he referred to as 'beating': the pulsation between two pitches whose frequencies are very close to but not identical to each other. He has explained it himself:
"Under ordinary circumstances, we cannot directly perceive the mathematical ratio between the frequencies of two notes played simultaneously; it remains a matter of abstraction. However, when the pitches are very close, the phenomenon of 'first-order beat' becomes an actual experience. If, for example, the frequencies are 3 Hz apart – say, 443 Hz and 440 Hz – we hear two things: first, the two original frequencies become one single tone (mathematically, it's the median value of the two); additionally, we hear a pulsation of three beats animating this single tone. The 'median value' in this case is 441.5 Hz, and the pulsation that accompanies it – the di³erence between the two original frequencies – is three beats per second, which, when we hear them, is the audible manifestation of an arithmetic equation, in this case, the subtraction 443-440 = 3! This newfound technique thus allows, among other things, for relationships to be established between motivic elements played the "regular" way (for instance, as components of melodic lines) and rhythmic patterns echoing or foretelling these motivic elements generated by first-order beats."
However, that point had not yet been reached in 2005, when Mirror Land was created, the earliest work on this release, composed for flute and oboe, but also readily performable in other combinations (flute and clarinet, oboe and clarinet, etc.) On this album you hear the combination of flute and clarinet.
In that same year the First String Quartet was created, a commissioned work for BeethovenFest 2005, as a contemporary 'echo' of Beethoven's late string quartets, with Beethoven's final string quartet, in F, op. 135, as a point of reference. Not a pastiche, but an imaginary scenario in which Beethoven is hard at work, testing ideas that well up in his mind and changing them as the creative process progresses. It produces, according to Durand, 'alternative trajectories, distant images and dramatic chronologies'. Not in Beethoven's musical language, but in that of Durand: the relationship with Beethoven takes place exclusively on an abstract level. 'Conceptual impetus rather than direct allusion'. A good example of this is the second movement from op. 135, which under Durand's hands is completely dismantled, then reconfigured and then reinstated in steps, with each of the four voices first presented individually and only then by the entire ensemble. Accounting for history, Durand has cast the structure of his string quartet in classical sonata form.
Ten years later Mundus Imaginalis (2015) was created, its title not derived from an imaginary, but from an 'imaginal' world, a term coined by French philosopher Henri Corbin and referring to ancient Persian mysticism. The 'imaginal' that moves between intellectual perception and intellectual intuition. From Durand's musical perspective, the listener is invited to 'travel' between sonic perception and intellectual intuition.
Ten years later Mundus Imaginalis (2015) was created, its title not derived from an imaginary, but from an 'imaginal' world, a term coined by French philosopher Henri Corbin and referring to ancient Persian mysticism. The 'imaginal' that moves between intellectual perception and intellectual intuition. From Durand's musical perspective, the listener is invited to 'travel' between sonic perception and intellectual intuition.
Geister, schwebende Geister (2020) is the first work in which Durand makes use of the '(first-order) beats' principle. The 'schwebende' or floating character of the piece is determined by the carefully calibrated ensemble of integrally structured half and quarter tones. What is also special about this is that the rhythmic patterns seem to emerge from nowhere, clearly perceptible but not produced by the performer(s). Ghosts, floating ghosts, here represented as a composition for solo viola and chamber orchestra.
Two more works date from the same year: In a weightless quiet and the Second String Quartet, Cantar de Amigo.
In a weightless quiet for solo violin, owes its name to a poem by Ted Hughes, The Hawk in the Rain, containing for this work the following key passage: 'Effortlessly at height hangs his still eye. / His wings hold all creation in a weightless quiet, / Steady as a hallucination in the streaming air.' But contrary to what the evocative title suggests, the tenor is one of continuous unrest, with even a threatening undertone, the imagination further driven by the flapping of a hawk in full flight. Yet this is not programme music. In this work too, the 'first-order beats' are unmistakable.
The Second string quartet likewise has a poem as its source of inspiration, D. Diniz by Portuguese lyricist Fernando Pessoa, dedicated to Portuguese king Dinis I, nicknamed the Farmer and also the Poet (1279-1325). The poem is included in Pessoa's book Mensagem (1934). Four of the total five movements contain a quotation from this poem. The final movement recalls the Heiliger Dankgesang eines Genesenen an der Gottheit, in der Lydischen Tonart, known from Beethoven's String Quartet in A, op. 132. In Durand's string quartet it is called Chorale - in ancient style. It is indeed designed in the style of the chorale, the movement that is note against note, but unlike Beethoven, there are uncomfortable gaps in the texture, as if chunks have been removed.
Finally, on this album the most recent work by Durand: La descente de l'ange (2022) for violin and clarinet. The title suggests an angelic atmosphere but that is not the case. The angel 'lands' according to the score 'playful and a bit clumsy' after first gliding with increasing speed towards the earth. At the end of the piece, the angel seems to rise again, but should this be called programme music? According to the composer it may seem so, but that was not what he had in mind.
This work too has its roots in the 'beat', both between the two instruments and the strings of the violin, with D as the focal point, around which space has been created for microtonality.
About the performances I can be brief: they stand firm, with knowledge, experience, technique and engagement as the main pillars of support.