Étude en blanc n°4 (2025)

part of "6 études en blanc"

Commissioned by ensemble Ars Nova

Instrumentation : méta-piano solo

(Meta-piano = hybrid system combining an electronic device with the acoustic structure of a traditional piano)

Dédication to Lise Baudouin

Performer : Lise Baudouin, méta-piano

Manuel Poletti et Martin Antiphon, computer music designers

Premiere : 26 march 2025

ElectroSession Festival, Saint-Palais-sur-Mer (France)

Approximative duration : 17 to 20 min.

Publisher : L'Octanphare

buy the score

In this fourth Etude of the cycle, I wish to explore mutation in all its forms, both on the conceptual and structural level (changing the listener's perception of a time that expands or contracts) and of the musical material itself (pitches, timbre, gesture, energy, etc.). To do this, I used an innovative device developed during my research-creation PhD at CNSMDP and Ecole Normale Supérieure de Paris on piano writing and the notion of evidence (gestural, conceptual, perceptive), the Meta-piano, which allows to include electronic transformations in body of a traditional concert piano, using its soundboard as a diffuser and thus doing without loudspeakers. Similarly, a second digital keyboard is also integrated, as well as a whole intuitive control device by the pianist, thus multiplying his or her playing possibilities and controlling the electronic part in real time. (D.R.)