Raphaël Belfioredates
about
projects

• Abstractive extensive studies
  
• Three situation studies
  
• Three measurement studies
  
• Contents (book / exhibition / performances)
  
• Greenwich House, 1957
  
• At every instant, seeing reason to believe as much, and not being able to satisfy himself of the contrary, he should conceive himself to be so.
  
• Timecode studies
  
• Postproductions
• [number of performers-date-abbreviated venue name]
  
• Edgar Varèse and the Jazzmen
  
• Piano Reductions
  
• Luftlinien
  
• Means with the sound from their own ends / Ends as the sound from their own means

• Sub specie
  
• Seven instantiation studies
  
• NJ
  

live performances
texts
instagram / soundcloud / bandcamp

NJ
performer-specific piece for solo guitar and slightly delayed amplification

2019

"NJ" is a piece written specifically for (and in constant dialogue with) my dear friend Nelson Javet. The composition is based on historical musical encryption processes that translate information specific to NJ into musical material. The theme from a song composed by NJ is used as a cantus firmus, and a "soggetto cavato" is extracted from the letters of his name.

The piece, composed of long tremolo notes on several strings, is intentionally challenging to play (if not impossible to execute perfectly). The premeditated failure to deliver a faithful rendition of the score is meant to reveal the performer's specific physical traits, making them distinctly apparent during the performance. Each flawed interpretation of the score is therefore unique to him and can be seen as expressing him concretely in parallel with the structural components of the composition.

The use of slightly delayed amplification, with its source placed at a different point in the performance space, serves to highlight the imperfect playing. The tremolos tend to merge into a single sonic thread, while the punctual voluntary or involuntary events are emphasized.


performances:
29.05.2019 / CPMDT-Studio D’Agostini, Geneva
13.12.2019 / ZHdK-Konzertsaal 1, Zürich

performer: Nelson Javet



score

audio

upcoming :                                                                                                           March 2026 / new piece for percussion with Zacarias Maia / Basel, Geneva, Krakow