Michael Levinas

Diaclase

The three pieces of Diaclase (1993) for 'acoustic' brass quintet are a study in situ about the 'acoustical beats and space phenomena'. Three types of beats are successively 'studied': vertical in Caron t'appelle ('a homage to Gluck', where the trombone and the tuba play bell to bell, while the horn and trumpets 'play in micro-intervals smaller than the quartertone') temporal in Trompette écho (a canon at short distance in unison between the two trumpets) finally tone in Signature (as in Appels, the brass play with their bells pressed against a snare drum but they produce the sonorous gyration by themselves, without the help of any electroacoustical apparatus). All these beats aim at the fusion (i.e. the joining) of tones.