Une conférence de David Moliner, compositeur et percussionniste

Gesture and Musical Form: A Journey from Bach to the Present

Résumé :
This lecture explores gesture as a central expressive and structural element in music, tracing its development from Johann Sebastian Bach through Ludwig van Beethoven and Anton Bruckner to my way to conceive the music. The talk examines how gesture influences the direction and transformation of musical material, shaping phrasing, form, and the perception of physicality. Special attention is given to rhythm as a fundamental expressive basis, and to the way similar gestures generate distinct expressive outcomes depending on context, style, and sound.

From the rhetorical and dance-related gestures in Bach, through Beethoven’s expansion of motivic energy and Bruckner’s large-scale architectural processes, the lecture follows a line toward a more dynamic and physical understanding of a musical direction. The final part connects these historical approaches with my own artistic and compositional work, where gesture operates as an inner motor of musical form, integrating movement, sound, and temporal architecture in a unified expressive framework.

Bio :
David Moliner is a composer and percussion soloist whose work centres on gesture as a structural and expressive principle, conceived within a lineage that extends from Bach, Beethoven, and Bruckner to Xenakis. His international activity includes collaborations with leading ensembles, orchestras, and institutions across Europe and beyond, appearing both as composer and soloist.

In 2025, his collaboration with The Boulanger Trio at the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg highlighted his dual profile, presenting Beethoven in dialogue with contemporary repertoire and featuring his transcription of Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 for piano trio and marimba. His music, published by Universal Edition, has been performed by orchestras such as the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Lucerne Festival Contemporary Orchestra or Valencia Symphony Orchestra. He has worked with conductors such as Sir Simon Rattle, Peter Eötvös or Matthias Pintscher, and collaborated with soloists including Jörg Widmann and Carolin Widmann.

As a marimbist, he has performed at major international venues including the Philharmonie Berlin, Musikverein Vienna, Elbphilharmonie Hamburg or Pierre Boulez Saal, and regularly gives workshops and masterclasses at leading institutions such as the Royal Academy of Music London or Hochschule für Musik und Theater Rostock. His work focuses on expanding the expressive and structural possibilities of sound physicality.