INES THIEBAUT

For piano and electronics. Performed by Jason Hardink. Salk Lake City, Utah. March 22 2022. Live Recording. (Concord Revisited).

Program Notes
One of my favorite Pre-Socratic philosophers Heraclitus loved to write and think about the concept of flow (rhei), the stream of things. He is the one that talked about not being able to step on the same river twice, and that nothing ever just is, it is always becoming. This piece is always becoming. It is cyclical, yet different every time. It is also a reflection on the symbiosis of the piano and the electronics, how they both need each other throughout, starting and finishing each other's gestures and colors. At the very end, when the electronics give out, the piano doesn't know how to continue, and the flow stops. These interacting and dependent streams were intentional attempts to honor Charles Ives, as is my metaphor of nature. I've always experienced his music in the transcendental way intended, with added touches of humor I hope to have honored in this piece as well. I want to take the opportunity here to deeply thank Jason for sharing his incredible talent with me, I can't think anyone better than him to bring this music to life.

For pno., vio., vlc., bass., 2 trb. Performed by Nova Chamber Music Series, featuring Jason Hardink. Salk Lake City, Utah. April 25 2018. Live Recording.

Program Notes
Hiraeth mutates from a chamber sextet to a piano chamber concerto halfway through the piece. It is a humble homage to Bach, and his Brandenburg No.5, where the harpsichord emerges from within the texture of the concerto grosso and plays one of the very first extended solo keyboard passages of the genre. The piano in Hiraeth starts simply, facilitating the introduction of the rest of the ensemble. Yet as the piece progresses its energy and intensity starts dominating the texture until it becomes the constant heartbeat that governs the continuity of the music. The title is a Welsh word which is hard to translate into English. It roughly means deep longing, similar to the type of longing expressed in Portuguese Fados. The type of longing that resonates through this piece is not a longing for a physical place. It is the longing for a place that doesn’t truly exist, beyond the grasp of the music. I want to thank Jason Hardink and the rest of the ensemble for sharing their talent with me..

For fl., vln., perc. Signal Gallery, The CUNY Gradute Center, NY. Performed by Cadillac Moon Ensemble, December 11 2014. Live Recording.

Program Notes
Alcmaeon was composed for the Cadillac Moon Ensemble in 2014. Its essence is the interchange of the multiple types of attacks and sustains created by the amplified alto flute, violin and percussion. There is also an interest in the different types of energy emanating from the ensemble: the stillness is constantly interrupted by small ripples that inspires other larger ripples in the musical continuity.

For String Quartet. Performered by MIVOS String Quartet. CUNY Graduate Center, New York. 2012. Live Recording. Stop-Motion animation by Maia Cruz Palileo.

For Pno., Vln., Vcl., tape. Performered by Galan Trio. Studio Recording.

Program Notes
The historical discourse on continuity and discreteness, dating back to ancient Greek philosophy, encapsulates the tension between unity and plurality in understanding the nature of reality. Atomism, championed by figures like Democritus and Epicurus, posited that matter is composed of indivisible particles, challenging the idea of infinite divisibility inherent in continuity. In contrast, Aristotle and the Stoics upheld continuity, viewing space, time, and motion as continuous entities. Aristotle's concept of syneche, or continuity, emphasized the interconnectedness of phenomena without reducing them to discrete units, allowing for potential infinite divisibility without requiring indivisible atoms. This philosophical debate continues to resonate in contemporary mathematics, where modern frameworks like nonstandard analysis and smooth infinitesimal analysis explore the synthesis of continuity and infinitesimals.

For vln., tape. Performered by Karen Kim. Willow Place Auditorium, Brooklyn. March 20 2015. Live Recording.

Program Notes
I learned from Mario Davidovsky’s music that gesture is as important an element in a work as are all the other traditional elements. I obviously couldn’t avoid his influence while writing this piece (nor I wanted to really). I was decided to explore gesture without the limitations of an acoustic ensemble with this work: the tape part (written out as five independent voices) is quite complex, and the violin sometimes leads, sometimes follows, sometimes silences...

For pno. and per. Performered by Mirna Lekic and Melanie Sehman. DiMenna Center for Classical Music, New York. May 31, 2013. Live Recording.

Program Notes
I've been stealing Aristotle's titles for my own pieces for quite some time, and thus cannot deny the philosopher's influence on me. Categoriae was at first planned to be a larger work, but as it unfolded I realized that because of the simplicity of its issues (unlike Aristotle's own work…) the piece had to be kept more contained. Imagine a dialogue between four characters: the pitched piano, the unpitched percussion, the unpitched (and undetermined) piano, and the pitched percussion - Categoriae is an enquiry of these relationships. The timbre similarities and disparities between these four characters are a major theme in this work, and I encourage the listeners to not listen through their eyes but instead let a sound start one place (the piano overtones, for example) and finish in another (the scraping of a gong) and follow it with their ears instead. Written for Mirna and Melanie, who presented the work, I take the opportunity here to thank them for all their time, effort, talent and understanding.