The Art of (Small) Differences
In this interview, the French composer Pascale Criton traces the underlying strands of her musical writing and thinking. Passionate about the sound continuum, her encounters with Ivan Wyschnegradsky, Gérard Grisey—and with the philosopher Gilles Deleuze—in the 1970s, confirmed her interest in micro-intervals and the variability of sound. The composer discusses the preoccupations she was working though in her pieces from the 1980s to the present. The idea of eco-sensitive interaction emerges with the use of scordaturas in 1/4, 1/12th and 1/16th of a tone associated with sound synthesis (Thymes, 1988), or in reference to acoustic behaviours (Artefact, 2001), which bring back gestural writing (Objectiles, 2002). Pascale Criton questions not only instrumental techniques, but also notation and interpretation (Circle Process, 2012). Her use of small differences aims to increase perception and now extends to a sensitive hearing of acoustic and perceptual phenomena (Wander Steps, 2018).