Femmes

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Femmes for 2 female voices and ensemble;

Femmes (1ère version)

for 2 female voices and ensemble, 10 instr, 25mn
Date : Premiere in february 2001
Duration : 25 mn
Commission : Radio-France
Editor : Radio-France
Nomenclature : 2 female voices, (with Baschet sculptures sonores, les tôles à voix des Frères Baschet) and 10 instr. : flûte, clarinet, trombone, horn, harp, percussion, violin, viola, cello, double bass.
Premiere :
11 february 2001 in Radio-France, Auditorium Olivier Messian, festival Présences.
with Roula Safar (in Arabic) and Françoise Atlan (in Hebrew).
Direction Dominique My, Ensemble FA.
Dédicated :to Malon Couvelaire et Jérôme Fara.

Femmes (2ème version)

pour 2 female voices and quintet, 25mn.
Date : premiere in november 2001
Duration :25 mn
Commission : by Michaël Lévinas
Editor : Editions Jobert
Nomenclature : 2 female voices, (with Baschet sculptures sonores, les tôles à voix des Frères Baschet) and quintet : flûte, clarinet, trombone, viola, cello.
Premiere :
8 november 2001, Cité Universitaire, ens. l’Itinéraire, direction Mark Foster, with Roula Safar (in arabic) and Françoise Atlan (in hebrew)
- 14 november 2001, Ircam, ens. l’Itinéraire, direction Mark Foster
- 23 november 2001, festival Why Note, Dijon (Théâtre des Feuillants). direction Olivier Cuendet.
- 2003 in Genève, at CICR with ensemble Contrechamps, direction O.Cuendet.
- june 2005 in Annecy , dans la cour du Château, avec l’ens.. Pleiade, dir. JP Odiau.
Dédicated : to Michaël Lévinas.

Libretto : Texts by Marmoud Darwich in arabic, and Itzrach Laör in hebrew.

Notice:

Two women, one in Hebrew language, the other in Arabic, sing their belonging to the same land. A history of women, a land of history and two separate languages. These women are separated by what could unite them, communication power, language. So we can hear at the beginning of the piece two different music blocks with their own syntactic features, the musical language is defined in separate autonomous spheres. Each voice line is declared sovereign because it holds the text. And the text resonates in the song of their language (Hebrew / Arabic), not as an instrument of propaganda but as a poetic language that seeks to celebrate the marriage between freedom and peace.
For this piece, I wanted two voices from the Middle East, accustomed from childhood to the vocal techniques of this area as some shouting, throat sounds, melisma, psalmodies, lamentations, tadrij and trill yodelé. Also, I was looking for two performers who are involved in the musical identity of the work. And I wrote the vocals for them.
Women sing in the hollow of two sound sculptures of Baschet Brothers erected on stage, sheet metal sculpted and folded, high over 2 meters, which have the characteristic to create a reverberant sound effect with a spectral distortion rich in harmonics.

Copyright florence Baschet.

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