Close / Close - Chloé Dominguez + Ensemble contemporain de Montréal, Véronique Lacroix by James O'Callaghan

Writing a work for a tour puts into perspective an essential and fascinating problematic of written music: abstract musical principles are distilled into specific individual sound-events created in specific spaces by specific musicians. Rather than write music that neutralizes these circumstances, I have attempted to ‘tune’ a work to the particularities of the various concert spaces where the work will be realized, and the specific instruments and instrumentalists that will realize it. 


I have researched the acoustics of the concert halls of the tour to generate musical material that will respond to their resonant frequencies. The form of the work mirrors the trajectory of the tour, structured as a sequence of spaces demarcated by an orchestration of the acoustic response of each hall. Features specific to Chloé Dominguez’ cello have guided the materials of the work as well, treating the cello as an interior space-within-a-space. Finally, field recordings from the larger environments around the work’s performance sites are a further source material.



The work’s title emblematizes the problematic relationship between the abstract and the particular with the homographic word pairing ‘close’ and ‘close’. The two words are written the same but could mean either the adjective ‘close’ (near to) or the verb ‘close’ (to shut or bring to an end). The work hopes to examine the tension between these related ideas: first, the intimacy of the solo instrument and the sensation of being familiar with one’s environment. Second, the idea of ‘enclosure’ (the cello and the concert hall as enclosed spaces) and claustrophobia.


Close / Close was commissioned by l’Ensemble contemporain de Montréal 
with support from the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec.

Recording: 11 November 2018, The Music Gallery, Toronto. Recording engineer: Paul Hodge