Ciel noir
(Black sky)
Mixed choir
Poem by Joë Bousquet
(1999)
Duration : 5’30
Commissioned by ARIAM-Ile-de France.
First performance on february 27th 2000 – Paris, Theater « Les Bouffes du Nord »
Paris Young Choir conducted by Laurence Equilbey.
Publisher : Editions Jobert
Extract :
In 1918, at the age of 21, Joë Bousquet was shot in the back leaving him paralysed until his death, one September night in 1950.
Henceforth, unable to move in a bedroom he is « the body of words » and night becomes his companion. The night of course of his many vigils, but also the night where he made a narrow escape from death and for which he patiently awaits its return.
The poem Pensefable is renamed here Black Sky in the musical score for mixed choir. In this work, a cry of despair twice breaks through the main theme but peacefulness is found in its own resonance. Then the soprano soloist skims over the polyphonic backcloth of the « songs where the end has gone astray », whilst the basses chant the irregular beat of the ironic clock of fate. The different voices then settle into one harmonic range before fading into a whisper, as though the flame of a candle was being blown out.
PENSEFABLE
Survis au jour il est une heure
Où la lampe est pleine de fleurs
— Si mes peines sont ce qui pleure
Amour c’est de moi que je meurs
Les beaux jours sont morts sous le nombre
Des baisers tombés de tes mains
— La vie a vécu l’homme est l’ombre
De celui qu’il sera demain
Les chants dont la fin s’est perdue
Parlant entre eux du vent qui dort
Dans l’âme où la nuit est venue
Ont porté le temps comme un mort
Mais le coeur où la nuit s’éveille
Voit survivre aux jours un ciel noir
Dont ta peine est la soeur vermeille
Et l’oubli de toi le miroir
(Joë Bousquet)