Helsinki lectures – 1. Why research into lutherie?

DaxoTongues “New means change the method, new methods change the experience“.
Karlheinz Stockhausen

With the passage of time, the traditional acoustic sound paradigm has become impractical and inadequate. Like other composers, I gradually came to realise that this paradigm was becoming an impediment to my evolving imaginary, as well as an obstruction to various individual musical trajectories. I have therefore embarked on a personal (and inevitably limited) research project on instruments that might serve to give expression to my imaginary, the means that are best suited to developing what I want to say as a composer.

To be more precise, why undertake research into lutherie?

To facilitate the natural development of my relationship with instruments
To facilitate the natural development of my musical language
To facilitate my approach to the inharmonic and its rebalancing with the harmonic realm
To facilitate my approach to composition, which is closely bound up with the properties of sound
In view of the urgent need to find appropriate means/instruments, through which I might give concrete form to my sound imaginary

Similarly, I believe passionately in the idea of a musical community centred on the individual, on individual responsibility, on the conscious and unique contribution of each one of us. It wasn’t possible for me to support this idea without moving beyond the traditional acoustic sound realm; this, I realise, is the primary reason for my turning towards new lutherie.

[This text is a brief summary of a public lecture given at the Music Centre in Helsinki, 29 October 2015].