Composer's note :
Following "La Cathédrale d'Ani" created by Laurence Mekhitarian in Yerevan in 2017, this new piece is part of a cycle project entitled Hayastan still in progress. It is dedicated to the Armenian-born visual artist Aida Kazarian, whose work is the primary source of inspiration. Its title, "L'iridescence du toucher", is taken directly from an article written by the artist herself and published in the booklet presenting her work. Remembering the "rhythm of knotted stitches and love songs" that punctuated the daily work of her parents around the oriental carpets they made and restored, she developed an original and personal language by using her fingers directly to apply the paint on the canvas.
There is therefore nothing else on most of her canvases than her colourful imprints which come together in real compositions and which are not without making one think of musical scores by the rhythmic testimony of the "touches" they deliver. The musical writing has also sought to evoke the sensation of a gesture-touch continually repeated by a process of rhythmic ostinato on sounds chosen according to the resulting resonances. For these seek to evoke the iridescent effect of Aïda Kazarian's canvases which invite the spectator to find the effect of reflection according to his position in front of the canvas and the surrounding light.
This phenomenon of iridescence could be transcribed into sound effects by working on the continuous resonances of the low strings released from their damper by the action of the sostenuto pedal, on their evolution throughout the piece and their subtle blending according to the sounds played. As for the "love songs", they too are evoked by the emergence of modal melodic fragments in a typically Armenian style.
Piano