Threne

Includes the first issue of a 1973 doom-concrete classic, "Threne", plus other early works. An important INA GRM document. "The work 'Threne' is a creation inspired from fragments of an unfinished poem Mallarme had attempted to write following the death of his son when aged 8, in 1879. The musical composition recorded on magnetic tape features the exclusive use of voice: a mixed choir and two narrators. Following recording production, these voices were subsequently processed using electro-acoustic techniques, being purposely restrained in many cases. On the other hand, a more radical electro-acoustic and systematic approach governs the relationships and cross-linking arising between work and song, a process involving actual dynamic modulation. Through the latter, it becomes possible to provide a given 'model' of created sound -- chorus harmony, polyphonic sung vocal structures, whispers, etc. -- with intensity, dynamic pulsation derived from another material, in this case, from the spoken word. In this way, the subtleness of words becomes embedded in song, with the latter receiving rhythmical and dynamic inflection from the words. Between the 'word thus deepened out' appearing in song, and the real word itself found here and there throughout the work, an unlimited array of states of existence come into being, intermediate levels where song and word appear to merge to a point where they exchange identities, sound becoming the word in spirit and the word becomes pure music."