While Chantale Laplante chose late in life to devote herself to music and composition, she rapidly circumscribed, only a few years upon completion of her master degree from the UdeM in 1998, the territory of her musical propositions, in which the influence of Morton Feldman as well as her own abilities as an improviser inflected and enriched the skills she had acquired in composition and electroacoustics music.
Since her work À travers champs (1997) for orchestra, in which unusual harmonies and melodies are carefully balanced, and Le ciel doit être proche (1999) for solo violin, which displayed some energetic virtuosity, some fifteen works for solo instruments or small groups, with or without electroacoustics, and four supported works have by and by narrowed the register of dramatic gestures found in her music. The latter are now inscribed in the slow exploration of sound, the minimalist treatment of material, most often exposed pianissimo, without loss of tension. The harmonies do not aim at a formal teleology anymore: they are immobilized and contemplate themselves in their more or less smooth or coarse nudity.
This attitude was perceptible from the very beginning. The strange Feldmanian atemporalities have therefore been allowed to sediment in Chantale Laplante as in an appropriate hummus, in order to stimulate her reflection. In À travers Éclat (2001), For piano, tape and conversation (2001-2002), Contre-nuit (2003), Là (2004-2005) et Slow (2007), her approach is coherently constituted. Since then, Estudio de um piano (2008), A room with no walls (2009) and Gaza (2008-2009) have confirmed it.
Feldman’s influence is very strong in the works of many composers, particularly Canadians. Defining an aesthetic close to that of Cage, those “neutral musics” (characterized among other things in Feldman by a unique pp intensity, by motives more or less regularly repeated and by a certain indifference to the harmonic weight consonant/dissonant of intervals and chords) question the musical dramaturgy which still forms the basis of most listener’s expectations. This attitude, sometimes based on a sort of de-personalization of the creative process, aims at the radical weeding out of romantic remnants of the “I” in order to foreground an aesthetic of presence. Chantale Laplante, at least, subscribes to this last idea, in conformity with the particular sensibility mentioned above, as concern durations. With the American composer, she evokes Bergson and Spinoza, where chronological time is superseded by eternity, with no beginnings and no ends. In that same vein, the influence of Feldman and electroacoustics have diverted her from learned working methods, characterized by outlining the material (outside time) before the compositional decisions (placement in time). Sound, certain types of sonorities, sometimes linked to an interval (major or minor 9ths) treated as colour, trigger the method. Timbral music, which is for musicians more demanding musically than technically. The slow tempo and intensity, particularly the soft dynamics, serve to induce in the listener certain availability for listening, as in the miniature forms in which the composer had displayed her talents in 1996-1997 (Miniare).
The composer reveals that Operation Cast Lead carried out in Gaza by the Israeli army, and the earthquake in Haiti, these tragedies that occurred during the composition of Gaza and Haiti, Haiti (2010), respectively, have constantly haunted her, without however diverting her from the specifically musical concerns at the basis of both works. Thus, for the last work: the aesthetic exploration of Japanese Nô theatre (inscribed in her memory since having taken courses with José Évangelista at the UdeM), especially as regard the elastic temporal dimension of this music, in which tempo and intensity are organically linked; the integration of voice, for which a glossary of sonorities will replace the text; and (a novelty for the composer) introducing the treatment of the instruments in real time, in particular as implemented to the sound of bell-plates custom-made for this work and processed by a ring modulator, like an echo of sonorities heard in Luigi Nono’s works. But, despite the apparent distance between the avowed concerns and the title, the implicit dedication still remains a gesture of commitment for Chantale Laplante, who has not disavowed her past as a social worker during the 1970s, before a career change brought her to musical composition.
Chantale Laplante does not make predictions as concerns her future works, and evokes directions already sensed in her last compositions: the swelling of intensities in a recent electroacoustics composition, some work on pulse and meter in Slow, with some interrogations about the links between writing and perception. Explorations from a basis consciously articulated, an expansive personality open to surges.
Michel Gonneville
This Prelude has been written from information available through Chantale Laplante’s website or from interviews with the composer, supplemented by listening to streamings of her works heard through the Centre de musique canadienne’s website or from recordings made available by the composer.
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PROGRAM NOTES
Haiti, Haiti
Chantale Laplante (1956)
20 min.
With financial assistance from the Canada Council for the Arts
My first sonorous sensation at the basis of this work was that of a cow bell and of a low, resonant sound, which explains my choice of the Almglöcken and of bells-plates, here processed with a ring modulator. As for the voice, after many experimentations I have decided to elaborate a small glossary of sounds specifically chosen for their resonance of meaning and timbre. Haiti, Haiti is thus a study on the interaction between the resonance of the instruments, of electronic music and the human voice within an elastic, slow and whispering temporal frame.
The earthquake in Haiti occured during the composition of the work. The title has been chose in solidarity with the Haitian people and their very ancient aspirations of political and economic independence, and as an act of homage to their inspiring resilience.
BIO Chantale Laplante was trained as a classical and jazz pianist and possesses some experience on stage as a keyboardist in pop and experimental music groups. After composition studies, she went on to perfect her art with Francis Dhomont and Jonathan Harvey (U.K.). She has also an improvisation practice with her computer which has led to the CD Brilliant Days, nominated in 2003 by the magazine The Wire among the 10 best CDs in that genre. In 2009-2010, she was associated researcher at the matralab, a space of research-creation in inter-X arts directed by Sandeep Bhagwati. For more informations: www.chantalelaplante.com.
While Chantale Laplante chose late in life to devote herself to music and composition, she rapidly circumscribed, only a few years upon completion of her master degree from the UdeM in 1998, the territory of her musical propositions, in which the influence of Morton Feldman as well as her own abilities as an improviser inflected and enriched the skills she had acquired in composition and electroacoustics music.
Since her work À travers champs (1997) for orchestra, in which unusual harmonies and melodies are carefully balanced, and Le ciel doit être proche (1999) for solo violin, which displayed some energetic virtuosity, some fifteen works for solo instruments or small groups, with or without electroacoustics, and four supported works have by and by narrowed the register of dramatic gestures found in her music. The latter are now inscribed in the slow exploration of sound, the minimalist treatment of material, most often exposed pianissimo, without loss of tension. The harmonies do not aim at a formal teleology anymore: they are immobilized and contemplate themselves in their more or less smooth or coarse nudity.
This attitude was perceptible from the very beginning. The strange Feldmanian atemporalities have therefore been allowed to sediment in Chantale Laplante as in an appropriate hummus, in order to stimulate her reflection. In À travers Éclat (2001), For piano, tape and conversation (2001-2002), Contre-nuit (2003), Là (2004-2005) et Slow (2007), her approach is coherently constituted. Since then, Estudio de um piano (2008), A room with no walls (2009) and Gaza (2008-2009) have confirmed it.
Feldman’s influence is very strong in the works of many composers, particularly Canadians. Defining an aesthetic close to that of Cage, those “neutral musics” (characterized among other things in Feldman by a unique pp intensity, by motives more or less regularly repeated and by a certain indifference to the harmonic weight consonant/dissonant of intervals and chords) question the musical dramaturgy which still forms the basis of most listener’s expectations. This attitude, sometimes based on a sort of de-personalization of the creative process, aims at the radical weeding out of romantic remnants of the “I” in order to foreground an aesthetic of presence. Chantale Laplante, at least, subscribes to this last idea, in conformity with the particular sensibility mentioned above, as concern durations. With the American composer, she evokes Bergson and Spinoza, where chronological time is superseded by eternity, with no beginnings and no ends. In that same vein, the influence of Feldman and electroacoustics have diverted her from learned working methods, characterized by outlining the material (outside time) before the compositional decisions (placement in time). Sound, certain types of sonorities, sometimes linked to an interval (major or minor 9ths) treated as colour, trigger the method. Timbral music, which is for musicians more demanding musically than technically. The slow tempo and intensity, particularly the soft dynamics, serve to induce in the listener certain availability for listening, as in the miniature forms in which the composer had displayed her talents in 1996-1997 (Miniare).
The composer reveals that Operation Cast Lead carried out in Gaza by the Israeli army, and the earthquake in Haiti, these tragedies that occurred during the composition of Gaza and Haiti, Haiti (2010), respectively, have constantly haunted her, without however diverting her from the specifically musical concerns at the basis of both works. Thus, for the last work: the aesthetic exploration of Japanese Nô theatre (inscribed in her memory since having taken courses with José Évangelista at the UdeM), especially as regard the elastic temporal dimension of this music, in which tempo and intensity are organically linked; the integration of voice, for which a glossary of sonorities will replace the text; and (a novelty for the composer) introducing the treatment of the instruments in real time, in particular as implemented to the sound of bell-plates custom-made for this work and processed by a ring modulator, like an echo of sonorities heard in Luigi Nono’s works. But, despite the apparent distance between the avowed concerns and the title, the implicit dedication still remains a gesture of commitment for Chantale Laplante, who has not disavowed her past as a social worker during the 1970s, before a career change brought her to musical composition.
Chantale Laplante does not make predictions as concerns her future works, and evokes directions already sensed in her last compositions: the swelling of intensities in a recent electroacoustics composition, some work on pulse and meter in Slow, with some interrogations about the links between writing and perception. Explorations from a basis consciously articulated, an expansive personality open to surges.
Michel Gonneville
This Prelude has been written from information available through Chantale Laplante’s website or from interviews with the composer, supplemented by listening to streamings of her works heard through the Centre de musique canadienne’s website or from recordings made available by the composer.
——————————————————————————–
PROGRAM NOTES
Haiti, Haiti
Chantale Laplante (1956)
20 min.
With financial assistance from the Canada Council for the Arts
My first sonorous sensation at the basis of this work was that of a cow bell and of a low, resonant sound, which explains my choice of the Almglöcken and of bells-plates, here processed with a ring modulator. As for the voice, after many experimentations I have decided to elaborate a small glossary of sounds specifically chosen for their resonance of meaning and timbre. Haiti, Haiti is thus a study on the interaction between the resonance of the instruments, of electronic music and the human voice within an elastic, slow and whispering temporal frame.
The earthquake in Haiti occured during the composition of the work. The title has been chose in solidarity with the Haitian people and their very ancient aspirations of political and economic independence, and as an act of homage to their inspiring resilience.
BIO Chantale Laplante was trained as a classical and jazz pianist and possesses some experience on stage as a keyboardist in pop and experimental music groups. After composition studies, she went on to perfect her art with Francis Dhomont and Jonathan Harvey (U.K.). She has also an improvisation practice with her computer which has led to the CD Brilliant Days, nominated in 2003 by the magazine The Wire among the 10 best CDs in that genre. In 2009-2010, she was associated researcher at the matralab, a space of research-creation in inter-X arts directed by Sandeep Bhagwati. For more informations: www.chantalelaplante.com.