Nucleus

Nucleus is the third and final prelude for orchestra after Oculus and Mabus. Lasting around ten minutes, it is the longest of the twenty-two-minute cycle, which can be played in its entirety or as individual pieces.
While Oculus explores light and Mabus darkness, the starting point for Nucleus is matter; first and foremost sound, timbre, specific to the large orchestra, but also melodic, harmonic, rhythmic matter, or matter at all in the use of materials (stone, wood, sheet metal, metal) in the nomenclature of the orchestra’s percussion instruments and in certain playing modes,
particularly for the strings (blowing, rubbing, pizzicato on the last bridge, etc.).
The piece oscillates between two distinct orchestral writing styles: an overall sound (mass) or, on the contrary, a fragmentation of the desks evoking the nuclei that come from a block of raw material from which splinters, blades or lamellae are detached.
This score is dedicated to the memory of my parents, who passed away in March and November 2022.
Jean-Louis Agobet