L’obvie / l’obtus (1997)
for clarinet, gestural controller and interactive electronics

In an essay titled “The Third Meaning” in The Responsibility of Forms, Roland Barthes contrasts the "obvious" meaning—that "which presents itself quite naturally to the mind"—with what he calls the "obtuse meaning," which "seems to open the field of meaning totally, ... extend[ing] beyond . . . knowledge, information." In L’OBVIE / L’OBTUS the timbre of the clarinet and its extensions through computer manipulation create a similar field of possible interpretations. Based on short melodic fragments recorded during an acoustic experiment in the anechoic chamber at IRCAM, the piece uses physical gestures of the clarinetist to navigate within a field of timbral refractions.

Gestures are tracked by an infrared controller, measuring absolute position as well as velocity and acceleration. Events often depend on how quickly the clarinetist enters or exits particular ranges of the sensor; these transition velocities are used in the software environment MAX to control parameters of event-generating algorithms. The natural gestures of clarinet performance are expected by the program; L’OBVIE / L’OBTUS is, in a sense, a “rendering” of this hidden gestural language, bringing sonic corporeality to the clarinetist’s shadow.