Program note

The title of this piece (From the depths of the damp monastery) is an indirect allusion to its fairly well-known source material, which becomes progressively more identifiable as the piece goes on and will most certainly not be unveiled in this short preamble. Inspired “By Other Means”, I created a playing field between two musical worlds: one led by the piano and referring to music of the past, the other starring the percussion and dominated by unpitched sounds such as brushing, scrubbing, scratching and bouncing. This double concerto of sorts puts our two strings and two winds in a bit of a pickle, increasingly more torn between a world of romanticism and a world of utter noise, ultimate victims of this musical tug-of-war. But who in the end will be victorious? Stay tuned to find out; after all, a program note's purpose is to pique your interest, not to spoil it!

Thierry Tidrow