Tristan Murail

Territoires De L'Oubli

Instead of considering the Piano as a percussion instrument (hammers hitting strings) Territoires De l'Oubli emphasises a different idiomatic characteristic of the instrument: a group of strings whose vibration is caused by sympathetic resonance or by direct action of the hammers. This is why the sustain pedal is depressed from the beginning until the very end of the piece: the work is written for the resonances, not for the attacks, which are considered as an inevitable but secondary phenomenon.