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Bernard PARMEGIANI
 Among
the catalogue of works by Bernard Parmegiani (60 opus) some of the titles
testify more particularly to his musical path: Violostries (1965) Capture
éphemére (1968), l’Enfer, after The Divine Comedy
from Dante (1972), Pour en finir avec le pouvoir d’Orphée
(1971-1972) De natura sonorum (1974-1975) La creation du monde (1982-1984)
cycle Plain temps ( 1991-1993), Sonare (1996) La Memoire des sons (2000
2001).
Except for some mixed pieces, his work as a whole takes the form of music
for ‘fixed sound’, coming within the scope of the immense
repertoire of electro-acoustic music. This experience was to be further
enhanced over some 35 years, taking into account that the music for television
radio advertising and the stage provided the composer with the opportunity
to display musical accomplishment by experimenting with new musical forms
and new instrumental techniques. In this respect his most well- known
work is undoubtedly the signature sound signal at Roissy-Charles-de Gaulle
Airport.
In 1971 be mode a video film based on the music in L’oeil écoute
featuring visual imagery processed through a synthesiser.
About
the Music
L’OEIL ECOUTE 1970 18:58
An enduring reflection of the essence of time perceptible
in its own right, can be established through the act of intimate listening
where the self becomes immersed in re-living the experience of a journey
or the immortalised passing of something disclosed as streaming images.
As with all concrete music composers B. Parmegiani yields to this charm
and in his works, it takes on the forms of continuous temptation marked
throughout by a sense of the forbidden and by a certain fear. The listener
is brought to wonder whether the composer actually intended to finish
once and for all with the power of Orpheus.
In any case the train emerges as mans best friend and so it is here for
Parmegiani the musician exploring and recasting dreamlike intricacy. Both
through the effect of continuum and streaming images time is transformed
into space literally transporting us.
What does this journey edge out towards? Where does it actually go? What
are we crossing?
Such is the substance of the irnpressions and dreams evoked in a poem
of space transporting us further for evermore.
The musical creation of Parmegiani is bounteous and broad in nature When
not delicately distilled, brought in closer from afar or yet again built
up from infinitely unprepossessng elements it is often boldly unveiled.
We only need listen to the opening of l’oeil écoute, a sustained
swirl and flurry emerging as a wave about to break, which we only just
manage to glimpse at its approach, just like this train which we take
at full speed surging forward headlong at the opening of the piece. At
the very outset, on the one hand, everything is given in a single act,
the music is already moving forward; and on the other the ghostly realm
into which it takes us is already amply filed out.
We note that the large arbitrary breaks in tone Parmegiani achieves in
l’oeil écoute and indeed throughout al his musical campositions,
arise as searching encounters. As such they are gestures deriving from
the sculptor himself. The blocks used are very imposing and the matter
extremely dense...
The composer’s preference for this generously developed ghostly
realm or space is also based on a specific creative foundation: it enables
him to conceal things and thus especially allows him to disclose them
to play on and with the ambiguity of their presence. Through its momentary
and background quality the rather dense and complex matter in the piece
gives rise to remarkable and constantly renewed perceptions of appearance
and concealment able to assume utterly surprising forms since the interplay,
mixing, blending and transparency of elements remains ever changing and
is often highly unforeseeable. The surging fight of the potentiometers
and balanced crescendos are all gradually chipped away at, carved out,
transformed by the matter from which they are intended to extract specific
essence. The entire work of B P. is imbued with such games of hide and
seek and disclosure.
Philippe MION Extracts from: L’oeil écoute An Analytical
Commentary
In Portrait Polychrome Bernard Parmegiani
Paris CDMC/INA-GRM 2002
LA ROUE FERRIS 1971 10:40
 ‘This
bewitching and effective mechanical and organic piece unquestionably marks
the absolute peak achieved in the repetitive manner of the composer which
signfies his attempt to capture an everlasting moment. La Roue Ferris
is the name used by Mexicans to refer to a large ring adorned with fireworks
which spirals upwards and vanishes into the atmosphere as it burns. A
wild device of madness, it symbolises the movement of time which is forever
drawn out and cancelled by cyclical repetition.’ Regis Renouard
Lariviere (1)
’It spirals up even further merging as well into its own resonance
which it relentlessly maintains through variations. Wonder is born and
dies, leaving us with an illusion of duration. It moves through twists
and turns. Space takes hold of it. Nothing remains….
And the swifts spiral ever upwards in the freed space as if to extend
this symbol of festivity.’ B. Parmegiani
(1) in Portrait Polychrome — Bernard Parmegiani Paris Coed. CDMC
GRM/INA 2002
ESPECES D’ESPACE 2002 2003 – 21:47
This title, inspired by the writing of Georges Perec’
expresses my research into the possible evolution of some sounds relative
to the space where they appear. A sound, like a signal can incite the
imagination to prolong it in a musical style. As if in a state of reverie
when listening to acousmatic musical pieces through the use of technical
manoeuvre I am sometimes brought to mentally modify my listening vantage
point. When the work itself suggests, I allow myself to become immersed
in a to-ing and fro-ing amidst the sounds moving between more intimate
or on the contrary more removed listening: an inside outside exploration
focused on the space in which the sounds are situated. Just as the gardener
must be familiar with the ground chosen for planting, I have chosen here
to express an interest in certain kinds of space. Putting this more accurately,
have often reduced this notion of space to a certain unique point which
then becomes a place wherein sounds live and then pass over: the use of
a materialogy which s expressly heterogeneous is intended to evoke contrasts
aimed at creating diversified levels which reveal the spaces explored.
Whether wide open or more intimate public or privaote, the particular
nature of these spaces calls for the presence of a specific world of sound.
4 movements
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