“a pressure triggering dreams” (1996-1997) è un brano del compositore americano David Felder (b.1953), per orchestra ed elettroacustica dal vivo nella forma di campioni di flauto elaborati elettronicamente e affidati a un campionatore per l’esecuzione. Completano la parte elettrica un basso elettrico e una amplificazione selettiva di alcuni strumenti.
Concettualmente ho qualche riserva (i.e. perché proprio suoni di flauto?), ma il risultato sonoro non è male, frenetico e ad alta energia, anche se gli interventi elettronici si sentono solo in particolari punti e a volte si fatica a discernerli nella massa orchestrale.
Ma forse questo è proprio quello che il compositore voleva. Comunque ognuno può farsi la propria opinione. Ecco le note di programma e il brano
“The work a pressure triggering dreams was commissioned by the American Composers Orchestra for Carnegie Hall, for a premiere in May 1997 … [It] was to be a work that included electronics. I elected to respond to this request by incorporating a companion ‘orchestra’ consisting entirely of computer-processed flute sounds within the orchestral tapestry and to expand the orchestra by using live sampler keyboard, electric bass, and by selectively amplifying solo instruments. […]
“The title is a rough translation of some remarks made by Friedrich Nietzsche in The Birth of Tragedy (1870-1871) when he is speaking of the effect of Richard Wagner’s musical language upon the listener — this remark characterized my subjective response to the piece I was then composing and therefore serves as a kind of emblem for the composition. A wide variety of materials (extracted from my series of ‘Crossfire’ pieces — soloists, electronics, video, and computer processing of acoustic materials made by the individual musicians) is deliberately compressed in the attempt to create an atmosphere of saturation somehow related to the experience of persistent musical afterimages suggested by Nietzsche’s brilliant observations. […]”
David Felder – a pressure triggering dreams (1996-1997), per orchestra e elettronica
Buffalo Festival Orchestra, Harvey Sollberger, conductor