Via Métro was composed in Nice, France (1994, revised in Oberlin, Ohio 2009) for David Rice, who premiered it on June 12, 1994 in Paris. The score for Via Métro is based on the first eight lines of the Paris metro system. Performers have the freedom to switch lines of music just as riders can transfer metro lines. For example, someone on the metro system who begins on line #1 at Pont de Neuilly will arrive at Ch. de Gaulle Etoile and may continue on line #1 or transfer to line #2 or line #6. Correspondingly, performers who begin playing the music associated with line #1 will reach a point in the score where they can continue with the same line of music or may switch to the music associated with line #2 or line #6. In this manner, performers make their way through the score by choosing, at each junction, which line of music to continue playing.
Though I have used part of the metro system as a structural source, Via Métro is not a programmatic work about the metro. There are various styles of music notation, including: traditional notation, written instructions, poetry, graphics, and pictures. A performance of Via Métro combines improvisation and interpretation by any number of performers on unspecified instruments. There are also recordings of the metro, which accompany the live musicians.
I would like to give special thanks to Patricia A. Nagy for allowing me to include her poem New Year’s Eve in the score.
© fwmp 2009