An analysis of Jean-Claude Risset's Contours

Abstract

This paper discusses an analysis of Jean-Claude Risset's Contours, a tape work composed in 1982 using only computer sound synthesis. The analysis is based on recorded traces of the compositional process (Music code listings, verbal and graphical annotations), and focuses on sound design criteria. It attempts to elucidate the connection between these criteria and the overall structure of the musical work. In short, it investigates the observable link between “composing-the-sound” and “composing-with-sounds” in the making of Contours. The psychoacoustic relationship of pitch to timbre is crucial, and was a primary concern in all of Risset's operations in composing this work. In order to let a particular pitch contour either dissolve, or emerge from various timbral transformations, the composer devised several ad hoc sound design strategies strictly functional to the compositional concept. Further remarks are proposed concerning a twofold aesthetic dimension peculiar to this music: on the one hand, we have a legacy to the French tradition of musical impressionism; on the other, we have a more constructivist attitude, hidden behind what at first may sound as a decorative interplay of fascinating sound colors.