Instrumental Gesture in StreicherKreis

This article deals with the concept of instrumental gesture, specifically the gestures of bowed string instruments. These reflections are an extension of my compositional and research work at Institute for Research and Coordination in Acoustics and Music (IRCAM). The idea of gesture will be explored from many angles, from the simple gesture of a performer bowing a violin to produce a sound, to the notion of compositional gesture in writing for a string quartet. I will invoke certain areas of our recent work: first the creation of gestural models based on different playing techniques, followed by the construction of a ‘gesture follower’, and finally a discussion of the different applications of the notion of instrumental gesture in my string quartet StreicherKreis. Since the main virtue of instrumental gesture outside of its natural function is, for me, that which reveals the performer’s interpretation, I will explain how I endeavour to highlight these interpretive dimensions, so that the performers’ gestures themselves trigger and guide electroacoustic transformations.