As the end of the second millennium approaches, we increasingly deal with the angry fallout from our historical legacy. Everyone identifies with a sub-culture, each of which claims some form of victimization and self-justification. Society turns into a constant search for what has been repressed and denied and, like a pack of wild dogs, we search for some form of revenge for our victimization. However, given that our lives have basically become an extension of the mediascape, and real power lies elsewhere, we become trapped in an endless life-sized Nintendo game seeking justice and revenge.

Correspondingly, popular music has become a monotonous driving beat to serve the same function as military bands once fullfilled for soldiers going into war. Part of the Resonance cycle visits these musical garbage dumps in order to use their energy and to give them a compositional language that they are void of. Moreover, if In a Bed Where the Moon Was Sweating. Resonance #1 deals with intimacy or sex and Revenge of the Repressed. Resonance #2 deals with violence, then this music might have the potential to be consumed by the media consciousness that it tries so hard to distance itself from.

Revenge of the Repressed. Resonance #2 was recorded and produced at the composer’s studio. It was commissioned by François Houle with assistance from the Canada Council for the Arts (CCA). The work was premiered by François Houle on November 7, 1993 at a Vancouver New Music Society concert. A version of this work exists for alto sax and tape and another version exists for tenor sax and tape.

Premiere

• November 7, 1993, François Houle, soprano saxophone • Concert, Vancouver (British Columbia, Canada)