Commissioned by the Percussions de Strasbourg

This work can be regarded as a suite for percussion instruments ensemble. In the first, second and fourth parts, the choice of the instrumentation was voluntarily limited to instruments of the same family:

1^st part: 6 keyboards
2^nd part: crotales, glockenspiels
4^th part: tubular bells, cows bells, Filipinos gongs

These three movements define a sort of "sound geography" of the musical space consistuted by the ensemble of percussion instruments.

This sound geography is completely "burst" in the 3rd and 5th movements where each regrouping of instruments is partially used.
The writing of each part puts unceasingly simultaneously or in opposition a dense material distributed on 5 voices to one independent voice, solitary but complementary and necessary to the 5 others.

Hence the title "Cinque per sei".

The material of the first part is based on the square roots of the numbers 1 to 6. Each following part is a second reading, a new development of this material. For the composer, this work is a sincere tribute to Franco Donatoni, who was in love with numbers and their symbols.

Audio sample:
1^st part (2'25")     

Performed by the Percussions de Strasbourg.