I composed this piece out of a few bell sounds (recorded at Notre-Dame Basilica in Montréal), treating attacks and resonances separately.

Attack (verticality): outbursts, harshness, violence, dryness.

Resonance (horizontality): melodies of allures [a Schaefferian term, in French, for ‘sound behaviour’ or vibrato], thick polyphonic webs, plays of spectral colour, lyricism.

Although designed as a discrete whole, the work was constructed out of the interweaving of the distinct atmospheres inspired by the multiple, ambiguous resonances which the sound of church bells stirs up in me.

Résonances was realized in January, 1992 at the studios of the Groupe de musique expérimentale de Bourges (GMEB) and premiered in June of the same year at the Bourges International Experimental Music Festival. The piece was commissioned by the GMEB.

Premiere

• June 1992, Synthèse 1992: Concert, Bourges (Cher, France)