Didier Rotella

Pantomimes

Pantomimes, for piano 4 hands and stereo electronics, is conceived as a dream, a stroll, an initiatory journey taking place between the moment the child has to go to sleep and the moment he wakes up. These nocturnal dreams, populated by diverse, fantastic, grotesque, poetic characters, have a constant evolution, taking him through countries that are sometimes wonderful, sometimes frightening, and states ranging from appeasement to passion, from joy to fear. Then, when the dance turns fury, it's time to come back to reality.

The work is presented as a series of tableaux designed according to a pedagogical progression, accessible from the end of the first piano cycle (about the fourth year according to the usual standards in conservatory) to the pre-professional levels:

The Pantomime is not only a musical evocation, it is also perceptible in the staging and the modes of playing required of the performers, since each tableau requires one or the other, sometimes both, to make unconventional uses of the instrument (other than playing on the keyboard). Thus transformed into puppets, the pianists then invest a total sound material and yet only dedicated to the piano (without preparation or other artifices), creating a universe taken up and developed by the electronic part with which they dialogue.

All the necessary electronic files are available for download via our www.edu.billaudot.com website (versions with click for work, in several speeds, in quadriphony for a concert, player...). These files are to be triggered very precisely when the corresponding symbol appears in the partition.

Pantomimes is dedicated to Françoise Thinat and Rosa Park.