Antonin Tri Hoang Disparitions

[Music]

Combining instruments and various forms of musical expression (improvisation, musical theater and concert performance), Antonin Tri Hoang, this time, has introduced a change in both dimension and space, taking on the formidable scale of the church of Saint Eustache. Ten musicians set around the full area will create architecture in resonance for the composer-cum-musician to embark on the subject of disappearances [“disparitions”].

“There is something intimidating about the prospect of a performance in a building 105 meters long, 43.5 meters wide and 33 meters high, particularly as this is music, and I cannot help but think of all the sounds that have reverberated throughout the Church of Saint Eustache in the past. So what remains? There are no fossils or footprints, but simply the recollection of human beings present at the time. The church itself still stands as a vast echo chamber, the paleontological skeleton of a giant instrument. “It is a matter of scale, or degree of magnitude as seen, for example, with a picture showing a mouse beside an elephant’s foot. Feeling the weight and vertical force of the stone, we shall move to the lowest point, leaving scope for doubt, for tenuous lines, for uncertainty; we shall remain on the ground here below. Let us endeavor to dialogue with the site, asking questions, triggering metamorphosis with our questions. Making things lighter, they may appear; removing things, they may be revealed. Let us use the transient force of music as it emerges while retreating, weaving and unraveling to transform the site, imagining it as ephemeral. Disappearing, in this work, might be that: having disappearance appear, un-appear, giving shape to such continuous silencing of sound.”

Antonin Tri Hoang, March 2019
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Duration : 1h