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    The fundamental principle of IRCAM is to encourage productive interaction among scientific research, technological developments, and contemporary music production. Since its establishment in 1977, this initiative has provided the foundation for the institute’s activities. One of the major issues is the importance of contributing to the renewal of musical expression through science and technology. Conversely, sp…

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  • Research

    The fundamental principle of IRCAM is to encourage productive interaction among scientific research, technological developments, and contemporary music production. Since its establishment in 1977, this initiative has provided the foundation for the institute’s activities. One of the major issues is the importance of contributing to the renewal of musical expression through science and technology. Conversely, sp…

    • Research Topics
    • The STMS Lab
    • Research Teams
    • Sound Systems and Signals: Audio/Acoustics, InstruMents
    • Acoustic and Cognitive Spaces
    • Perception and Sound Design
    • Sound Analysis-Synthesis
    • Sound Music Movement Interaction
    • Musical Representations
    • Analysis of Musical Practices
    • Projects
    • Sound Workshop
    • The Musical Body
    • Creative Dynamics
    • Musique/Sciences Collection
  • Creation

    IRCAM is an internationally recognized research center dedicated to creating new technologies for music. The institute offers a unique experimental environment where composers strive to enlarge their musical experience through the concepts expressed in new technologies.

    • Composers & Artists in Studio
    • "I am in blood" for Sixteen Musicians and Live Electronics
    • Lucie Antunes in studio
    • Deena Abdelwahed in the studio
    • "Transfer" for 10 Musicians and Electronics
    • L'Annonce faite à Marie
    • In Ex Machina
    • Jazz Ex Machina
    • Improvise cum machina 1/2
    • Improvise cum machina 2/2
    • Like Sound, Like Flesh
    • Silent Talks
    • Music-Fictions
    • Artistic Research Residency
    • Artistic Residencies: The Blog
    • Rendez Vous 20.21
    • Season 2022.23
    • Seasons from 1996 to present
    • ManiFeste-2022 Website
    • ManiFeste festival from 2012 to 2022
    • L’Étincelle, IRCAM’s journal of creation
  • Transmission

    In parallel to its fundamental missions of research and creation, IRCAM is committed to sharing its knowledge and know-how, its technologies with the general public. Cutting-edge research and diffusion of innovations, an international reference for education and the democratization of artistic practices are the driving forces behind the institute’s educational activities.

    • 2022.23 Training Courses
    • Max, Max for Live
    • OpenMusic
    • Modalys
    • TS2 and Partiels
    • Sound spatialization
    • From PureData to audio plugins
    • Sensors, Interfaces, and Interactive Machine Learning
    • Other training programs
    • Practical Information
    • Advanced Programs
    • Cursus Program on Composition and Computer Music
    • Supersonic Chair
    • Master ATIAM
    • Sound Design Master's Program
    • Music Doctorate
    • AIMove Master
    • School Programs
    • Studios of Creation
    • Mixed-Music
    • Artistic and Cultural Education
    • Career Discovery Visit
    • Images of a Work Collection
    • ManiFeste-2022, the Academy
  • Innovations

    At the center of societal and economic concerns combining culture and information technologies, the current research at IRCAM is seen by the international research community as a reference for interdisciplinary projects on the sciences and technologies for sound and music, constantly exposed to society’s new needs and uses.

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  • Infinite Now
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    • Related Event






Infinite Now

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Premiere by the composer Chaya Czernowin
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On the Brink

Infinite Now: Certainly an enigmatic and mysterious title, but that, in reality, says much about this atypical staged work. The third opera by Chaya Czernowin is not an opera like others, quite the contrary. It would be futile to search for traditional story lines, bel canto and other alternating recitative/aria/vocal ensemble. However, we find all the lyricism, the necessary narrative tension, the poetry, and emotion all favorably presented.

Here the scene painted is not that of a world in miniature, but the interior of a soul/brain/skull. In this context, the music’s role is not to simply highlight the drama and emotion: it becomes a vector of the action, like a stream of conciseness that endures and reacts to different thoughts, feelings, and events with which it is confronted.

In terms of emotion, it is, above all, the anxiety of an imminent catastrophe. Here, two catastrophes haunt this skull. Luk Perceval (librettist and director) weaves together three texts, spanning époques and frontiers: the letters of soldiers, excerpts from All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque, and novel by Can Xue, a Chinese author often compared to Kafka and Borges. On one hand, we find the true hell that is the First World War, and on the other, dreams and fantasy, the impossibility of moving forward despite the knowledge that remaining immobile is death sentence.

"These texts are written as metaphors for the obstacles that life lays on our road", says Chaya Czernowin. "It is the poetic vision of how we relate to our political reality and how we cope with the trace of  History with a big H, that i hope the music will bring to the piece. Knowing that whatever happens,  life continues,  vitality continues.  Actually, despite the appearances, the piece is deeply optimistic.

Technology

Here, electronics are a tool for creating sound poetry.

This is expressed through the numerous sound sequences recorded, realized by the composer and Carlo Laurenzi, scattered throughout the work: the work of a goldsmith, assembling sounds and noises sometimes incredibly faint, almost inaudible-whispers, brushstrokes, scratching-surface from an obscure silence.

The principle was to transform the theater into the inside of a head; spatialization is a large part of the work in order to create a poetic-psychological shock, to awaken the audience’s conscience to certain aspects of the music and context of the texts.

Past Experiences at IRCAM

Winter Songs I: Pending Light (2003) for ensemble and electronics
HIDDEN (2014) for string quartet and electronics with Carlo Laurenzi, this was the opportunity to develop a common vocabulary.

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Biography

person

Chaya Czernowin

Composer (born in 1957)
Chaya Czernowin   is a composer whose have been played worldwide. She was composer in residence in Salzburg festival, and Lucerne Festival,  She is Walter Bigelow Rosen Professor of Music at Harvard University and wa…


Related Event

Création française de la version concert de l'opéra Infinite Now de Chaya Czernowin à retrouver dans la programmation du festival ManiFeste-2017.

Programmation en ligne à partir d'avril 2017

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