Eclair de Lune is simultaneously a piano sonata, a piece for ensemble and electronics, a concerto for three tin drums, an acousmatic piece, a study on the spatial distribution of instrumental groups, and represents, after seven years in which I was occupied with instrumental music, a return to electro-acoustics. I always resisted the idea of ​​the immutability of a studio, but I was also aware of the fact that in the course of fifteen years experimenting there, my ear had been affected. Thus I decided in this project to concentrate on the mutual enrichment of composing and manipulation of the tonal material. The manifold recordings of the tin drums allowed me to elaborate the electronic section in a lengthy process of cutting and transformation, during which I was supported by the computer music designer Sébastien Roux. But the tones achieved by these means also enriched the instrumental sections, since the whole should create a tonal continuity based on the creation of linkages which proceed from isolated tones. The linkages arise from a "coagulation" of effects in the functionality of a granular synthesis. (This process was the inspiration for Le Grand Jeu composed in 1998/99). In this way the tonal consolidation takes place between electronics, tin drums and an ensemble made up of woodwind, brass, piano and strings rather via vertical relationships in the composition than through tonal homogeneity.
The work Eclair de Lune was commissioned by Ircam and the Ensemble Ictus, which gave it its world premiere on 21st March, 2006 under the direction of Georges-Elie Octors. It is dedicated to Frank Madlener.

Bruno Mantovani,
translated by Joanna King