Ensemble Works

Program Note:
This piece continues developing several aesthetic and processual interests I have worked on for the past few years. The title comes from a painting by American artist Joan Mitchell that I became enamoured with in 2020 and saw in person in 2021. Joan Mitchell, whose centenary was two days before the premiere, was, like me, a Chicago-born artist who loved art of different mediums. While she focused on developing her individual language in her paintings, she was constantly inspired by other types of art. She found this title from Jacques Depin, a poet she befriended during her time living in France.

The twice-removal of my piece being named after a painting named after a poem is also reflected in the musical materials. This piece started as a "re-composition" of a piece I wrote last year, titled "Now to Begin -- Why fear the end" (2023) after the premiere was cancelled. That piece took its starting material from the ending of my large ensemble piece "Triskelion" (2020-1). "La Ligne de la rupture" is not in any way an arrangement or re-writing of the previous piece, but rather a cultivation of similar and interesting musical materials under different circumstances, like the propagation of a plant cutting that grows in new soil to become an independent organism.

As its title suggests, "La Ligne de la rupture" is concerned most with breaking points. Pitch- and noise-oriented materials manifest and interact differently, including alternation and alteration (the process coming from a line of Depin's poem), interruption, and stratification. Radical transformation is not so much the goal as is propagation and proliferation under different circumstances with differing patterns of behaviour. I was greatly inspired by the striking phrases and imagery of Depin's poem and Mitchell's painting's brushstrokes and textured layering.

"La Ligne de la rupture" was composed for McGill University's Contemporary Music Ensemble as Composer-in-Residence. I am very grateful to Prof. Mélanie Léonard and the ensemble for taking good care of my work.

-- HAB

Performance History

World Premiere, February 14, 2025
Contemporary Music Ensemble, Melanie Leonard, cond.

U.S. Premiere, November 2025
Atlanta Contemporary Music Collective, Atlanta, GA

• fl / b fl
• clr / b clr
• a sax
• tpt
• tbn
• e gtr
• hp
• pno
• 2 perc
• 2 vln
• vla
• vc
• cb