Eclisses was written at the end of 2007 and revised in 2008 alongside the ensemble work Sectio in the course of extensive travelling. It returns to and develops the basic principal of Sectio: the contrast of structural solos and the application of different instrumental combinations (which is of course easier with a smaller ensemble). All in all, there are 24 possible instrumental combinations with a quintet. Each of these is used in the piece, but it is not until the final section—the most developed—where we discover the only combination in which the complete set of five instruments play as an ensemble. Never in the course of the preceding duos, trios, or quartets of the piece do the five instruments really play “together”, despite the superimposition of a duo and a trio to create this illusion.

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The term “Eclisses” (“Splinters”) suggests several things and thus several musical ideas. Firstly, little objects (thus the multiple sections in two, three, or four) that hold parts together and thus create assemblages. Moreover, “Eclisses” suggests the physical act of splintering, making reference to the final quintet section, energetic, lively, and dynamic.

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Eclisses was commissioned by Armand Angster for the ensemble Accroche Note, to whom it is dedicated.

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Jean-Louis Agobet, trans. Joshua Ballance & Méline Le Calvez.