CHRONICLE – At the Philharmonie de Paris, on April 24th, the Ensemble intercontemporain celebrated musical creation in a flowery language. Such is the tragedy of our time: the more empty the works are in substance, the more grandiloquent the comments surrounding them become.

On April 24th at the Philharmonie de Paris, the Ensemble intercontemporain presented musical creations in a particularly flowery language. As in this piece for two horns by Marco Stroppa: “The two horn players turn their backs on each other and direct their sounds towards snare drums that vibrate in sympathy, generating impressive acoustic illusions.” In the work of a certain Gérard Grisey, the composer “evokes the image of archaeologists discovering a stele and dusting it off until they uncover a funerary inscription, two percussionists then working on a nearly archaic sound material on two large drums.” How elegantly these things are said! The problem with so-called “contemporary” music is that the words and sounds do not match. When listening, one does not break free from the melody without pain, let alone harmony, a notion that rightfully dominates the entire history of art.

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