programme note

“A tap with your finger on the drum releases all sounds and begins the new harmony” ~ Arthur Rimbaud, To Reason, from Illuminations (translation by Wallace Fowlie)

The title of this work is a contracted paraphrase of the first line of Arthur Rimbaud's poem À une raison (To Reason) via Wallace Fowlie's English-language translation: "a tap with your finger on the drum releases all the sounds and begins the new harmony". What strikes me about this excerpt are the musical qualities evoked by the sequence of gestures that appear in Rimbaud's words. I decided then to have three different types of music representing the three main gestures (or ideas) from the poem ("tap", "release", and "begin [the new harmony]") appearing in varying forms and styles in short cycles. The work opens with some "tap" music consisting primarily of percussive sounds of indeterminate pitch, this leads to a brief moment of "release" music, marked by an intense instability in pitch and gesture, followed by "new" music, a much brighter, open, music. This cycle is utilised a number of times, each time introducing a new styles of music, and in varying degrees of duration. Ultimately, this single “movement” work is made up of three distinct sections, separated by a noticeable pause. The richness of Rimbaud's words also left much to the imagination and so it was crucial that I maximise the timbral palette of the ensemble, most notably with the prepared piano and the colourful use of percussion, exploiting as much as possible, the different qualities of articulation and sticks/mallets.

— Njabulo Phungula