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Instrumentation
Additional Information
Based on Le Merle noir (1952) by Olivier Messiaen, Pear Tart was conceived at a meeting in Eilís’ house in December 2021, where Andy and Eilís discussed their ideas over a pear tart. This conversation, accompanied by a recording of Le Merle noir, captured their initial reflections at the outset of their collaboration. Andy recorded the meeting and later converted aspects of their speech into music notation using Melodyne software. The score is a transcription of their edited conversation whilst the edited recording of their conversation was converted into a backing track. Eilís accompanies the speaking voices in conversation on the backing track, with some of her notes sustained in real time during the performance by Andy at a laptop. Laughter cadenzas are interlaced through the text, each time taking a slightly different form, varying from detailed notation to improvised sounds. The anecdote about Messiaen and a pear tart mentioned on the backing track can be found on page 486 of The Rest Is Noise (2007/2009) by Alex Ross.
