Fragments on Time

Fragments on Time is a septet composed during Levy’s residency at the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris. It continues the composer’s investigations into polymorphological operations. In the preface to the score, he writes:

“Music is one of the so-called ‘temporal arts’; it can be understood as the relationship between time and sound. This raises a number of interesting questions: aspects that are usually conceived as ‘vertical parameters,’ such as pitch or harmony, are in fact situated on a microscopic scale of time and rhythm. On a much larger scale, we also tend to think of texture as a vertical parameter, defined as the relationship between simultaneous elements, and morphology as a horizontal parameter, concerned with elements in succession. These are merely two sides of the same coin, which is form in time. Not long after encountering these questions, the idea came to me of a music in which form is a manifestation of texture, in which each layer is conceived as a form in itself, and in which the different articulations within those layers create macro-rhythmic changes across the whole piece, a kind of polymorphology.”

The work approaches these ideas in an almost digital manner: its layers consist of small fragments generated by cutting materials, much like slicing a cassette tape, and operating on them while exploring the gradient between succession and simultaneity. At times, the cut is extended, allowing us to hear the inherent developments of the source materials, sometimes serving as a basis for the emergence of other fragments. The piece also explores, through the introduction of a digital keyboard, compressions and expansions of the tuning system, resulting in a plastic, malleable material that nonetheless asserts itself incisively through the act of cutting.

The title, Fragments on Time, not only refers literally to the procedures of the work, but also reflects the desire for these fragments to speak about time, to serve as a reflection on questions surrounding its perception.

Recorded on Buenos Aires, Argentina, May 18th 2025 in ArtHaus Auditorium.