Les multiples usages du mot “geste” by Antoine Goudreau was composed within the context of the Vivier InterUniversitaire’s/Inter-University collaboration project, whose mission was to bring together student composers and performers from different higher learning institutions of the Montreal area and beyond.

The piece exploits the T-stick’s depth of expressive possibilities by asking the performer to manipulate the sound of the instrument with small, subtle gestures. The different gestures of the T-stick were mapped to parameters of a granular synthesizer in a Max/MSP patch with the goal of having intimate control over individual grains of sound.

The performer, Jean-Christophe Melançon, being a classically trained Jazz pianist, was told to improvise abstract gestures which were then recorded. These sounds became the basis for the granular synthesizer. Using the T-stick, Jean-Christophe explored his impromptu, pianistic sound world through a new lens, going so far as to improvise anew using his recorded improvisations in the performance.

The piece was recorded at the Gésu during the COVID-19 pandemic.