Concerto for bassoon, french horn, trombone and ensemble (19’)
Commissioned by Lemanic Modern Ensemble
With support from l’Aide à l’écriture d’une œuvre musicale originale du Ministère français de la Culture et de la Communication.
Premiered on 13th Novembre 2017 – Lausanne Suiza – HEMU Société de Musique Contemporaine.
Radio theatre adapted from Leslie Kaplan’s novel “Le Psychanalyste.”
With: Simon Scop, Marcial Di Fonzo Bo
Clarinet: Philippe Berrod
The Id: Agnès Sourdillon
Piano: Raminta Dombrowski
Eva: Frédérique Loliée
Cello: Eric Picard
The lecturer: Philippe Fretun
Elise Caron, horn: Joël Jody
Accordion: Pascal Contet
Percussion: Hélène Colombatti
Violin: Eiichi Chijiiwa
Original music: Luis Naón
Director: Claude Guerre
Le Psychanalyste was published by Éditions POL.
The idea to adapt Leslie Kaplan’s Le Psychanalyste (POL, 1999, and then Folio) in radio theatre was born after Marcial di Fonzo Bo read it at the Avignon Festival in 2004, and also because “radio theatre’s” form – What is happening? What can happen? – can resonate with the book’s central purpose: to understand the characters from the point of view of the acting subconscious, like the psychoanalyst: to make a portrait of ordinary heroes, heroes of thought. In that way a central place is given to the word and the voices, because of the therapy sessions, but also because thought is many times expressed in the form of a monologue – the narration is interrupted with short chapters, all of which have its own ending, and relaunch the narrative adding suspense to it as a whole: What is going to happen? What could possibly happen? We are, from the beginning, in a polyphony, a variety of characters and voices, the possibility of making different elements interact: the style and the manner of expression, the tone and the tonality, the pronunciation and each person’s points of view. This polyphony is conceived as a way of exploring the contemporary world, each person follows only their questions but in the same world, each person connected to the rest, in a relationship with the rest; the suburbs’ social reality, violence and hopelessness are not shown through the characters and their words, leaving aside the naturalist short-sightedness, by introducing a truly dramatic dimension, in relation to psychoanalysis ethics and the discovery of the subconscious. There are passages that seem to be closer to an essay or a reflection on psychoanalysis, about its history and its current state in the world, as well as the cinema, the theatre. These reflections are integrated by the characters speech which, contrarily to a closed-minded knowledge, allows us to think “with” Kafka, Freud, Arendt and others, in a dialogue with the characters. The process of staging by Claude Guerre, the original music by Luis Naón, the drama game of the actors, all this constitutes a real fresco of “alive life”. Simós is an analyst. He is penetrating, full of humor and open to chance. WIth him, in his office, the analysed patients, their tragic and funny stories, their questions, what happens during and out of sessions. On the other end, Eva, a woman, tries to think about the world and about life through the reading and rereading of Kafka. In both cases it is all about thinking. All the characters from this book are heroes who face the conflict between the desire for the truth and their passion for ignorance: they are heroes because of their thoughts, they are thoughts heroes. And at the same time they are common people like us. If we think we are alive, we change, we can change. Then, naturally, a lot of things happen: the narration is continuous development, just like identity it is never given because it is in every detail that meaning appears, and this meaning is linked to every detail. This is way the last word belongs to the world, this endless collection of details and possibles.
For Flute, Clarinet, Violin, Cello and Piano
Commissioned by Musiques Obliques ensemble
Premiere in the Auditorium of musée Grñevin on 11th June 1991.
Duration: 13 minutes
It is the oldest of the works in the Urbana cycle. I have decided a posteriori to include it because it is the founding work that led me to think the sonorous space in a different way, and also because it is located at the beginning of the questioning that carried me to imagine the suitability between the poetic and the musical material that I have always wanted to experiment in the composition.
Continue reading Más allá del rojo (Au delà du rouge) (1991) (Urbana 9)
For tuba (and bass trombone), percussion and electroacoustic device.
Commissioned by the Interface ensemble
Déclives premiered in June, 1992 at the Chapelle Auguste Perret, Arcueil by Gérard Buquet and Daniel Ciampollini.
For Gérard Buquet and Daniel Ciampollini.
Duration: circa 18 minutes.
At the beginning of this work, I thought about relating two series of short pieces. The first one, a new version of a former Déclives, rewritten for baritone saxophone and percussion. The idea was to make it have a dialogue with Alto Voltango for vibraphone and alto saxophone.
For orchestra
Commissioned by Radio France for the Orchestre Philharmonique.
Speculorum Memoria (Mirrors’ Memory) is a four-movement piece for reduced orchestra where certain features of ensemble music subsist, especially in the rather soloistic writing of the strings.
The Sphere and the rock (1993-94)
For recorded sounds.
Commissioned by INA-GRM (Musical Research Group)
Premiered on 16th May, 1994 at Salle Olivier Messiæn – Cycle Son-MU, Maison de Radio France
Duration: 17’ 30”
Two influences are in the origin of the composition of this piece.
The first one I owe to Borges’ Aleph:
“…the only place on earth where all places are — seen from every angle”, “The Faithful who gather at the mosque of Amr, in Cairo, are acquainted with the fact that the entire universe lies inside one of the stone pillars that ring its central court… No one, of course, can actually see it, but those who lay an ear against the surface tell that after some short while they perceive its busy hum…”
Perhaps we all look for that impossible concentration in immaterial music, a totality in an individual form.
The other influence is pictorial.
(Five musical poems)
for flute, clarinet, violin, cello and electronics – circa 15 min.
Commissioned by the MIXTUR Festival for ensemble Diagonal
The very first version of Ka was written for clarinet, horn, violin, cello, percussion and two synthesizers in real time. This new version, the third, is a transcription for flutes, clarinet, violin and cello. The percussion and the synthesizers have been reorganized in fixed electronic sequences. The four acoustic instruments are processed in real time. In the original version the five acoustic instruments were amplified, in this new version the treatments are in precise relation with a time line and are evolved all over the 5 parts of the piece, they are a kind of small orchestra in a strong relationship with the electronic part.
Five musical poems
For flute, 2 saxophones, clarinette, percussion and electronics.
Commissioned by CIP (International Percussion Centre) for the Hic et Nunc ensemble
The first version of Ka was written for clarinet, French horn, violin, cello, percussion, and two live synthesisers. This new version, transcribed only for wind instruments and percussion, takes up period electronics without retouches or additions.
KA, “five musical poems” (1993-94)
For clarinet, horn, violin, cello, percussion, and two synthesisers.
Commissioned by the French Government.
Premiere in February, 1995 by Ensemble TM+,
directed by Laurent Cuniot.
Duration: 22 minutes.
There is no recording of this version.
There are three versions of KA:
KA (93-94) (7.A)
Ka II (2007) (7.B) for flute, clarinet, two saxophones, percussion, and electronic.
Ka III (2015) (7.C) for flute, clarinet, violin, cello, and electronic.
During the period of creation of this piece I had in mind the idea of a relationship which always seems present, the relationship between music and other forms of art. The secret hope was that these pieces could inspire five poems (true poems, with words), five frames, one film. I know that this hope is born out of solitude and isolation.
Continue reading Ka, Cinq poèmes musicaux (1993-94) (Urbana 7.a)
For a trio of clarinets and a trio of strings
Commissioned by TM+ ensemble
The different motivations for the composition of Sextuor « . », together with the languages used to put them into practice (languages that may appear, at first sight, antinomic or whimsical), are materialised as a sort of auditory journey that becomes the play itself. In this journey the ideas take precedence without the stages or states being fully shown. What matters is that from an old memory (either true or false), a new piece can emerge. Continue reading Sextuor « . » (1994-95) (Urbana 25)
