Works » By Title » T » Tess in Stonehenge (11:24 / 1983)

The main characteristic of “Tess in Stonehenge” lies in the contrast between static sound figures (bands of filtered white noise, long modulated tones) and sound structures with a fast articulation of all the parameters. The overall form of the piece is divided into two types of sections: sections focused on one of the two kinds of sound material and sections which emphasize the contrast between two kinds. The opening and closing parts of the piece present the first kind of sound material whereas the central part presents the second one. Among these parts, the intermediate sections are focused on both sound materials, each of them with a different density. By means of the control of the density of the two kinds of loudness, one has parts with greater or lesser sonic contrast. The title of the piece refers to the last part of “Tess of the d'Uberville”, by Thomas Hardy. The realization of the piece was made possible by means of a fellowship from the Belgian government to work at the Instituut voor Psychoacustica en Elektronische Muzied, Gent. LC