Visuals Ax 1

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Instructions and score for Musique de Tables (1987)

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Illustrations from Thierry De Mey’s own work as a composer of gestural music. De Mey has invested much time and effort in creating notation systems to write down his compositions so that pieces like Hands, Musique de Tables, Silence Must Be, etc. can be transmitted to other composers. His system of writing makes use of a combination of analogical and symbolical notations.

Visuals Ax 2: Floor patterns and time structures for choreography

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Tresses

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Both Rain (2001) by Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker and Un Jour la Nuit by Michèle Anne De Mey are based on this floor pattern, which Thierry De Mey calls ‘tresses’. It illustrates how a floor pattern can be filled with movements by different choreographers. In Rain the underlying floor pattern is drawn on stage with tape, visible to the audience.

Fibonacci

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The underlying floor pattern of Amor Constante is based on the Fibonacci spirals. Also the musical rhythm stems from the proportions in the Fibonacci numbers.

Audio quotes

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Thierry De Mey explains that his work on scores can roughly be divided into two main axes. The first ax relates to his own work as a composer of gestural music, where he was confronted with the question of how to write down his compositions in order to transmit them to other composers or ensembles. The second ax is related to his collaborations with choreographers and with the ‘written documents’ (such as timelines, floor patterns, drawings) he has proposed as underlying structures or strategies for choreography.

In the second audio fragment Thierry De Mey elaborates on the second ax of his work. He asks how a written document (such as a floor pattern) can be a tool to create dance.

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Oralsite (about)

Thierry De Mey on Scores

Introduction

This page is part of the publication “What's the Score Publication”.

Myriam Van Imschoot and Ludovic Burel met with Thierry De Mey in 2005 when preparing an issue on scores and notations in dance for Multitudes. The interview (not recorded) pointed to a wealth of materials. In September 2011 Oral Site editors Tom Engels and Kristien Van den Brande visited Thierry De Mey in his studio in Charleroi/Danses to speak more about his trajectory with scores and notation systems, from the begining of his career in 1983 with Rosas danst Rosas, to today. Movement and writing is at the heart of all Thierry De Mey's work, whether that is composing music, making an art installation or a film.

A selection of scores, visuals and audio-comments is posted on this page.

Thierry De Mey, born in 1956, is a composer and filmmaker. An instinctive feel for movement guides his entire work, allowing him to tackle and integrate a variety of disciplines.

A large part of his music production is intended for dance and cinema. He has often been more than a composer for the choreographers Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker, Wim Vandekeybus and his sister Michèle Anne De Mey, offering his precious collaboration in the invention of "formal strategies". Among his work are Rosas danst Rosas, Amor constante, April me, Kinok (choreographies by A. T. De Keersmaeker), What the body does not remember, Les porteuses de mauvaises nouvelles, Le poids de la main (choreographies by W. Vandekeybus), Dantons Töd (dir. Bob Wilson).

For his own work he has developed a system of musical writing for movement used in pieces where the visual and choreographic aspects are just as important as the gesture producing the sound, such as in Musique de tables (1987), Silence must be! (2002) and Light Music (2004). He participated in the foundation of Maximalist! and the Ictus ensemble which created several of his pieces.

Thierry De Mey also makes installations and films, in which music, dance, video and interactive processes work together: Deep in the wood (2002-2004), Counter Phrases (2003-2004), Corps accor (2003), Barbe Bleue (Bluebeard) (2006), One Flat Thing (2006), From Inside (2007), Equi Voci (2009), Rémanences (2010).

Since July 2005, Thierry De Mey is artistic director of Charleroi Danses along with Pierre Droulers, Michele Anne De Mey and Vincent Thirion.

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