Ex Maria Virgine
Organ
(1992)
Duration : 13′
Commissioned by Festival du Comminges
First performance: August 15th 1992 in Cathédrale Sainte-Marie of Saint-Bertrand de Comminges by Michel Bourcier.
Publisher : Editions Billaudot
Extract :
This work owes its theme of inspiration in the date and place of its first performance: August 15th in Sainte-Marie’s Cathedral of Saint Bertrand de Comminges ; it obviously owed pay tribute to the mother of Christ, mother of humanity.
The title, extract of the Credo’s text, represents the birth of a child by her mother. The miracle, already contained in any birth, carries in this case a new mystery : virginity, spotless conception; in other words : purity and perfection which seem irreparably foreign to the world which surrounds us but nevertheless to which aspire any artistic creation.
This work is conceived as the imaginary process of a birth: leaving of what we could call the nothingness – but which is nothing other than the unknown – the material is going to build little by little in a continuous musical progress, until the gush of the light, the sensational highlight which summarizes the main elements of the long initial trip.
The end, ecstatic and serene, which quotes the “ex Maria virgine” melody from Machaut’ Mass, is an ultimate tribute in the wonderful virginity of Marie, white and pure as the eternity.