2015 – electronic – 3:45

Programme Notes

I composed this electronic work as my contribution to an online arts project entitled 58 (+1) INDICES ON THE BODY. The project, a collaboration between the AMAE Art Collective, artist Pier Giorgio De Pinto and the philosopher Jean-Luc Nancy, called on composers to create a work that would incorporate audio of Nancy’s reading from his treaty, 58 indices sur le corps, written in 2006.

Composers were invited to set any of the 58 (+1) Indices. Naturally I selected the “+1”! Honestly, it was the one that caught my attention the most. The way his colourless reading style describes human sexuality in great detail was very alluring to me. The text states many obvious things about human sexuality, but very much also reminds us of the joy that it is to be a sexual being. Nancy uses the word “soul” to describe the pleasure and delight. I never thought of it that way.

In many facets of society where talking about sexuality is still taboo, I found Nancy’s objective approach to describing human sexuality a breath of fresh air. In ensuring that my composition did his writing and reading style justice, I utilized many interweaving electronic loops to creating a throbbing effect. I hoped that the very gradually climatic work-up to his words in whole in the middle of the piece would parallel musically much of what he discussed.

– Frank Horvat