Duration: 20 minutes

Despite their proximity in classical organology, the guitar and string quartet produce few obvious fusions. It is from this distance, and the need to bridge it not with more sound, but with more silence, that the compositional challenges arose.

One must listen to silence and its qualities: if it initially governs the ruptures, the transitions between otherwise irreconcilable sound forms, it then becomes music in its own right, one that can be approached, detailed by very gradual movements of sound. The electronics connected to the instrumental ensemble act like a microscope, sometimes spatial by amplification, sometimes temporal by slowing down. Closest to silence, we find a fusion that supports the continuity of multiple ways of listening.

Then comes the plucking of a string. Like the sound of a bell or gong, it is never approached except through silence, or by the crescendo of a bow orchestration. As delicate as it may be, the guitar is antagonistic to silence, it signals the return to music, occupying a singular place in this setup—inevitably solo. The cello accompanies it, meaning it precedes it from silence, carrying its resonances toward the harmonic timbres of the two violins and the viola, placed far behind to add a halo to the silence.

au plus près du silence is dedicated to Isabelle Chomet, in memory of her teacher, Oscar Cáceres.

Premiere

January 26, 2025, by the Stanislas Quartet and Isabelle Chomet at Salle Poirel, Nancy.