Seven instantiation studies
brass duo & printed media

2019 - 2020













The realization of a complex mathematical object is takes place seven times in a location. Five of the realizations are played successively by musicians, while two others, printed on paper, are placed in the space where the sounds are heard. What can be considered the piece is not medium-specific: it is a series of arbitrary decisions resulting in a structure of parallel successions of proportions. The different manifestations of this mathematical object are understood here as equivalent versions of one artwork, regardless of how they concretely appear.

The time-based occurrences are composed of the same sonic material. The different components of the ideal object, assigned to various instrumental parameters, are systematically recombined to create new sonic occurrences of the underlying structure. Listening in this context seems to be less about perceiving a narrative composed of auditory events and more about experiencing concrete sounds as indicating the presence of their abstract cause.

The term “instantiation” is a technical term in metaphysics used to describe the relationship between a so-called "universal" property and its actual, perceptible occurrences.



first performance: 07.03.2020 / Tonhalle Maag (foyer), Zürich

trumpet: Jens Bracher
trombone: Stephen Menotti



score




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