sonic translation of Ludwig van Beethoven’s String Quartet No. 10
In 2009, I began working with the concept of sonic translation. This approach consists in using a pre-existing artwork (visual, musical, literary) as a score for a new musical work. This process led to the creation of several new works: Quatuor (2011) an electroacoustic work based on String Quartet No.10 by Ludwig van Beethoven; Nouvelle (2012) a radio work, based on the short story by Gustave Flaubert The Legend of Saint Julian the Hospitaller, and Inevitable Music, a collection of sonic translations of wall drawings by Sol LeWitt, which I began in 2012 and am continuously developing.
In early 2009, I invited a friend, composer Mathieu Bonilla, to collaborate on a new electroacoustic work. I asked Mathieu to transcribe nineteen fragments – each a few bars long – of Beethoven’s 10th String Quartet, which had, along with Beethoven’s later string quartets, accompanied me for many years, from constant home listening, to live concerts, and repeated viewings of Jean-Luc Godard’s First Name: Carmen. The fragments were chosen for being either moments of transition, instability, or stillness in the score. Mathieu wrote forty different transcriptions of the nineteen fragments – for flute, clarinet, french horn, percussions, cello. The forty transcriptions were then recorded at GRM (Groupe de Recherches Musicales).
These recordings are the only sonic material used in Quatuor. The one exception being the sound of insects, heard between 6:25 and 8:00 in Movement II (corresponding to the “C” section of movement II rondo form), which I recorded while making the piece in Mollon, France, in the summer of 2011.
Quatuor‘s structure follows that of the original string quartet: sonata form, rondo, scherzo and theme and variations.
Each section of the electro-acoustic work uses the transcribed fragments belonging to the corresponding section in the string quartet. Transcriptions can be heard in the piece at the same position as in the original quartet. The proportions between each part of each movement are kept.
Transcriptions written by Mathieu Bonilla and recorded by François Bonnet in July 2009 at GRM.
Flute: Michael Schmidt
Clarinet: Laurent Brutin
French horn: Ludovic Meylan
Percussion: Mathieu Chardon
Cello: Séverine Ballon
Mastering: Geoffroy Montel
Quatuor was commissioned by GRM and premiered at Auditorium St Germain, Paris on September 22, 2011.