JEUX

The first version of Jeux for piano and real time transformations appeared in 1983-1984 under the title « Proiezione ». The composition models were conceived according to an random principle controlled by the performer. Rather than offering choices within a more or less defined graphic system, a method of deduction (mainly tempi of sequences ) was established to make the performer observe the coherence of the first choice of tempo which relativizes the consequences of his decision.

This procedure obliges the performer to be responsible for the speed and enunciation of a sequence, in anticipation of its projection, of its transformed reproduction (timbre and pitch) by the computer, this sequence being superposed on another to be played later by the pianist. The defining criteria of this responsibility was not linked to a subjective choice in the field of formal articulation (as in so called « open forms »), but to the memorial capacity of the performer who was expected to stick to his own interpretation. It was about mastering groups whose pulsation speeds were variable, but whose general durations were relative, this imposing a logic created by the performance, and this in real time.

I kept the principle of interaction that I call « memorial or dead source», and « incidental or live source » , but changed the realization for technical and musical reasons, and followed a more diversified protocol of transformations.

The title of this work has ramifications that, if they are not in direct relation to the written and technological procedures employed, are at least associated with the preoccupation of the work’s form.

The word « Jeu » in French has many connotations : The « jeu » or technique of an actor ; the « jeu » or deck of cards ; a complete set of a kind of objects ; « jeu d’orgue ». « Jeu » is a game, an interpretation, a way of executing, as well as the movement of a mechanism.
Lastly, « Jeu » means difference : « différentiel, différence, différance ». « A systematic play of differences, different traces, the space in which the elements refer to each other » (J. Derrida. Positions. Editions de Minuit, p. 38).

D. Cohen