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Stèles
Cycle of five piano pieces, M.670 (2007-8)
after poems by Victor Segalen
COMPLETE RECORDING OF THE 5 PIECES OF THE
CYCLE,
EXCERPTS OF THE SCORE AND POEMS BY SEGALEN :
Écrit avec du Sang (Written with Blood) :
Joyau mémorial (Memorial Jewel) :
Éloge du Jade (Eulogy on Jade) :
Miroirs (Mirrors) :
Juges souterrains (Underground Judges) :
Performer :
Dana Ciocarlie, piano
TO SEE THE PAGE
ABOUT A CD CONTAINING THIS WORK
The Stèles have been first performed
by Dana Ciocarlie on March 23rd, 2009, at the Great Hall of the High
School of Music of Lausanne, during a concert of the Society for Contemporary Music
of Lausanne. The Stèles are dedicated to Dana Ciocarlie.
Duration
of the work : approximately 13 minutes
Commentary of the work by the composer :
The
title of this cycle of piano pieces had been given by the French poet Victor Segalen (1878-1919) to a series of texts written between
1910 and 1914. A « Stèle » is an erected
stone, on which an inscription has been engraved.
I
have chosen out of this collection of 64 poems in prose (+ 11 unpublished) five
that are different in character, each one inspiring a piece of a duration of
2-3 minutes : Écrit avec du Sang / Written with Blood
(granitic, tensed and terrifying), Joyau mémorial / Memorial Jewel
(enigmatic, from serene joy to anguish), Éloge
du Jade / Eulogy on Jade (bright, cold and sharp like the jade), Miroirs / Mirrors (made of sparkling reflections, written
in a mirrorlike mode), Juges
souterrains / Underground Judges (inexorable,
peremptory and terse).
Laurent Mettraux