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 Harmut Rosa: the totalitarian power of time, “an abstract principle that nevertheless subjects all who live under its rule” (H. R., “alienation and acceleration”). Time stops being the means it once was to become a goal in itself: acceleration for acceleration’s sake, speed for speed’s sake.
In the piece, the imperative “A Tempo” is brought to 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 emptying into pure abstract time.