Lichtung, for ensemble (1987)
Scored for flute/alto flute, oboe, clarinet, horn, piano, vibraphone/marimba, violin, viola, cello, and double bass.
Lichtung belongs to a group of instrumental works which share a similar formal conception: in each piece of the group, the material on which the music is elaborated does not appear until the very end of the work. The first three pieces of the cycle are: So er for twenty instruments (1985), Lichtung for ten instruments (1987), and Die Innere Grenze for string sextet (1988). A second group of two works following the same formal idea was written a few years later: l’exil du feu for sixteen instruments and electronics (1989-91), and un feu distinct for five instruments (1991).
Lichtung is based on a melody which is revealed at the end of the piece: its first half is played by horn and flute in unison, then viola and clarinet. Each section of the work is controlled by motives derived from parts of the melody. When these fragments are finally assembled at the end, they form the center of the work. Everything else has by then been eliminated, as peripheral, less essential. In that sense the formal conception is one of progressive unveiling, of progressive “revelation” of the origin of the work. Because its origin appears just before the final silence, the work opens itself to the outside, offers itself to the world when its center is finally exposed.