A Tempo
Formation: 4 tenor saxophones + video
Creation: june-august 2018
Premiere: 29th september 2018. Museo Vostell-Malpartida. SIGMA PROJECT
Duration: 15 minutes
A Tempo revolves around one the most urgent problematics of the late modern societies, brilliantly analysed by philosopher and sociologist Hartmut Rosa: the totalitarian power of time, “an abstract principle that nevertheless subdues all who live under its rule” (H. R., “alienation and acceleration”). Time is no longer the means it once was and it becomes a goal in itself: acceleration for acceleration’s sake, speed for speed’s sake.
In the piece, the imperative “A Tempo” is brought into the forefront through its measurement and imposition instrument par excellence: the metronome. The relation between four individuals and an imposed temporality in continuous accelerando sets the progression of a musical discourse whose content is gradually being emptied into pure abstract time.