The original sounds of Drama Symphony are excerpts from my orchestral piece Les Couleurs de la parole, sampled, then treated and mixed like concrete matter. Today, the to-and-fro between instrumental writing and studio work is, for me, extremely fruitful. For while I don't forget that musical expression was given to me by the instrument, nor do I forget writing by sound, which was finally invented here, at the GRM*. The mixture of these composition techniques creates a sort of virtual orchestra, which, while having the expression of known instruments, would have a constant presence, a rhythmic set-up without the slightest flaw, an ideal balance of planes, incredible dynamics, and the ability to play continuous tutti sounds without the slightest effort.

While I am always resistant to the prevailing thinking in contemporary music, which transforms music into an object of scientific study, I am, nonetheless, an avid user of scientific procedures that allow for capturing the poetic farther on. And digital treatments of sound are part of my compositional universe (in the same way that virtual images are now part of our common imagination). I admit that this inter-world, this hybrid orchestra between the known symphony and a new sound, fascinates and sometimes frightens me, like this inter-world between the real and the virtual in which we are beginning to live.

The descriptive content of Drama Symphony was given to me by the archetypes of illustrative music, of which "drama" is a modern genre, and which covers the feeling of violence, suspense, discovery and mystery, as well as the description of introspection and reminiscence all situations described in the vernacular production with a goodly number of synthesizers and rhythm boxes.

Throughout this work, I thought of Edgar Varèse and his symphonic utopia, which is why the score is dedicated to his memory.
D. L.
11 June 1995
*Translator's note: Musical Research Group of the National Audio-visual Institute