Les raisons des forces mouvantes, for organ (1997)
Les raisons des forces mouvantes (The reasons for the moving forces) is in four parts, preceded by an introduction, separated by short pauses. Each part is associated with one of the four traditional elements: water, earth, air and fire. The title, as well as the order of the elements as is followed here, comes from the 17th-century French engineer Salomon de Caus, who in his treatise “Les raisons des forces mouvantes avec diverses machines tant utiles que plaisantes” studies the principle of the hydraulic organs. But the relation to de Caus, who sees the interaction between elements in a purely mecanistic manner, ends here. I have placed each element in relation with an aspect of the human nature, and each one illustrates one of the categories (“reasons”) of the human motions:
– physical forces; inertia, gravity: water
– emotional forces: earth
– mental forces: logic, intellectual comprehension: air
– spiritual forces: intuitive comprehension: fire
We notice in this arrangement an evolution from the physical to the spiritual domain. The musical realization follows the natural evolution in that each of these domains influences and interpenetrates the others.
Each part has a specific character and compositional technique. For example, the second part, earth, is composed of a long, slow monody; the fourth part, fire, is a double canon, with one canon in fast running figures in the middle parts and a slower canon in the outer parts; the first part, water, borrows elements from the beginning of the third part (air) to develop a partially hidden canon, whose slowly rising melodic line is regularly interrupted by quiet, tenous ostinati in the upper register, and loud, powerful chords.
Les raisons des forces mouvantes is dedicated to Hans-Ola Ericsson, whose help for the choice of the organ registrations was invaluable. It was premiered in 1997 by Hans-Ola Ericsson at the “1. Internationale Woche für Neue Orgelmusik” in Trossingen (Germany). A recording of Les raisons des forces mouvantes by Mr. Ericsson is available on a CD of Durand’s music released by Mode Records (Mode 139) in September 2004.