Le chant en dehors creates an atmosphere of evolving connection between sonorities of definite and indefinite pitch, or ‘tone’ and ‘noise.’ The title is taken from an instruction used by the French composer Francis Poulenc, meaning ‘bring out the tune.’ That idea is reflected in this work whereby strands of pitch — as resonance or attack morphologies — coalesce to imply states of linear or spectral connectedness as emergent melodic or harmonic strands. The spatial setting of the work exploits ways in which noise-based material tends to be more active within the three-dimensional frame than focally pitched / resonant sounds. In Le chant en dehors these contrasting types of sonority are placed in changing patterns of interaction to evoke waves of tension and release.

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Le chant en dehors was realized in 2021-22 in the Music, Technology and Innovation Research Laboratory at De Montfort University (Leicester, UK), and premiered on June 4, 2022, during the Klang! électroacoustique 2022 festival in Salle Molière of the Opéra comédie in Montpellier (France). Le chant en dehors was awarded the Francis Dhomont Jury Prize at the 1st Akousmatique competition (Montréal, Québec, 2022) on October 14, 2022, as part of the Akousma 18 festival during a concert in the Music Multimedia Room of McGill University (Montréal, Québec).

Premiere

• June 4, 2022, Klang! électroacoustique 2022: Ambrose Seddon; John Young, Salle Molière — Opéra Comédie, Montpellier (Hérault, France)

Awards

• Prize, Francis Dhomont Jury Prize, Akousmatique 2022, Montréal (Québec)
• Prize, Prizes & Mentions, Akousmatique 2022, Montréal (Québec)