Description

"Les Mélodies Nutritives" proposes a journey throughout our sensory experience of food, musically representing our perception of food aroma, texture, taste and sound.

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The 1st movement ("Sound bites") explores what happens when we bite and chew though food, from the sounds generated by our jawbone (from 18') and the release of aromas (35') to the impact of biting (1'40) and chewing (1'55) on food texture. The movement then portrays the main resulting food texture attributes, from squeaky (3'20), crackly (3'43), crispy (4'06), crunchy (4'24) to mouthfeel (4'44).

The 2nd movement ("Flavour dissonance") responds to the fact we use a number of food-related terms to describe music, from the sweetness of a melody to the acidity of a harmonic interval. Each primary flavour is introduced by a woodwind, following which its harmonic world unfolds within the orchestra, from salty (clarinet) (5'32), sour (bassoon) (8'04), bitter (oboe) (10'21), sweet (flute) (12'19) to umami (all woodwinds) (14'15).

The 3rd movement ("I Eat Sound") explores the field of food acoustics, or the influence of what we hear on how we perceive food flavours and textures. A number of sonic elements presented in the 1st and 2nd movements are here modified, augmented or juxtaposed via microtonal, spectral, polyrhythmic or mirror writing processes. The movement focuses first on timbre (17'10), followed by rhythm (20'28) and harmony (23'31) before concluding (26'16).

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Instrumentation Genre Ensemble (with conductor)

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Tag orchestra

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Duration 27 minutes

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Instrumentation Flute [1 player]; Flute (+ piccolo) [1 player]; Oboe [1 player]; Oboe (+ cor anglais) [1 player]; Clarinet [1 player]; Clarinet (+ bass clarinet) [1 player]; Bassoon [1 player]; Bassoon (+ contrabassoon) [1 player]; Horn [2 players]; Trumpet [2 players]; Trombone [2 players]; Tuba [1 player]; Percussion [3 players]; Piano (+ celeste) [1 player]; Harp [1 player]; Violin 1 (section) [10 players]; Violin 2 (section) [8 players]; Viola (section) [6 players]; Cello (section) [5 players]; Doublebass (section) [3 players]

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Performances of this work

Date	Venue	Performer	Link
10/01/2026 (*premiére)	University of Edinburgh Reid Concert Hall, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK		Video