Michael Levinas

Par-delà

Par-delà, a work for symphonic orchestra (without oboe or viola) composed in 1994, is the nodal point of Lévinas' creation. Indeed, it does make use of preceding 'studies': the joint bells and the micro-intervals (producing beats) of Diaclase, the group of three pianos experimented in Rebonds, 'amplified so as to dominate the tutti' in which are used an upright piano tuned to sixteenth tones and two grand pianos the one being set at 440 Hz, the other a quartertone lower. However, adding trills, breathing expression and micro-intervals among brass and string to the bouncing bows whose innumerable time-lags form stratified layers, makes an indefinitely polyphonic style surge forth. The unprepared listener is struck by the incredible sonorities and the - real or metaphoric - omnipresence of human breath this leads one to affirm that Lévinas' works are to be breathed as much as they are to be listened to.