This trembling piece is both continuous and fragmented. It was realized on a VAX 780, a type of mainframe computer now extinct. The lines of code written for it — in Cmusic language — have no operational purpose anymore. The music is all that remains.

The title Fractal C derives from the fact that I used, as a generative module, a fractal model called the triadic Cantor set, an infinite iterative process from a straight line amputated of its middle third. This model was not applied linearly; on the contrary, it was projected on a wide range of temporal scales.

Making this piece showed me the potential held by a granular approach — or “granular sensibility” — in which I was already delving well before this piece and which I continued to develop afterward with other means.

— Horacio Vaggione [English translation: François Couture, ix-17]

Fractal C was realized in 1983-84 in the studios of the Institut de recherche et coordination acoustique/musique (Ircam) in Paris (France) and premiered on June 12, 1984, in the Espace de projection of Ircam. The piece was commissioned by the French State (Music Office).

Premiere

• June 12, 1984, Concert, Espace de projection — Ircam, Paris (France)