It is the Edward Norton screen adaptation of Johnathan Lethem’s novel Motherless Brooklyn that captured the imaginary aesthetic that I’ve always had for shipping docks. There’s always been an opacity to what are shipping docks to me as a crossroad of industrial, political and economic powers. It is that movie that finally led me to imagine a music to this opacity. The use of the sustain pedal and a heavy left hand motivic line was for me the first step in this imaginary world.
Recorded Tape
In the composition, the recorded tape. What it means, is that it is not a rhythmical indication.
As a performer, it is you to choose when to start as well as the silence in between the movements. According the chosen tempi, the tape can end before or after the performance. The poetic gesture would ask to wait for the tape to finish, but you might also want to fade out the tape if the wait is too long.
Cell Music
On the docks is cell structured composition. Each cell from each movement is indicated by a letter (A, B, C, etc.). It is up to you as performer, to choose to play the music in an alphabetic order or to tell a different story. The idea being:
- Accentuation of the unicity of the performance.
- To invite you, as a performer to spend more than one evening with that music and discover what comes out of different combination through different performances.
May the performance be unique!
Alice Orpheus
Preview
Preview of the piece with synthetic sound, made by the composer.
On the Docks