Les méandres du Fleuve Jaune

Catégorie
Chamber orchestra
2019

"Les méandres du Fleuve Jaune" for chamber orchestra, in three movements (2019), is a request of the Ensemble Strurm und Klang. The premiere took place on October 19, 2019 at the Espace Senghor in Brussels under the direction of Thomas Van Haeperen.

The three movements are :   I) The Ancestral Rite ; II) Moonlight on the yellow Earth; III)Rituels from the highlands.

This composition is inspired by a modern architecture located near my home in Brussels, the "Europa" building, the headquarter of the Council of the European Union. For both its exterior and interior construction, the building combines the most advanced ecological technologies with ancient materials in order to protect the environment. Its glass facade, illuminated by 374 multicolored LED tubes, uses for its structure about 3750 recycled oak frames from all over Europe. Oak, known for its longevity, is one of the only trees found across Europe. The façade thus symbolizes the historical and regional cohesion of the European Union, expressed in its motto: "United in diversity".

I have noticed that since the twentieth century, the attention of composers has increasingly turned to the extraordinary novelty and exploration of sound, while the writing of melody no longer seems to trigger as much enthusiasm and attention. 

In this piece, I proceed in the opposite way: I mainly seek to push the melodic writing to the extreme. I wanted to revitalize and re-actualize "old" Chinese folk melodies by recycling them with contemporary compositional techniques and 21st century acoustic thinking. 

This is why I chose themes of ancient folk songs transmitted on the shores of the Yellow River to paint a series of diverse scenes, ensuring their cohesion and artistic relevance using today's writing techniques.

Compositeur(s)
Instruments
Flûte traversière
Hautbois
Clarinette Sib
Basson
Trombone
Percussions
Piano
Violon
Violon
Violon alto
Contrebasse
Durée
21 min.
Effectif
Chamber orchestra
Effectif complet

1/1/1/1 -1Tromb. - 1perc-1piano 

Date de création