Laurent Mettraux, Stèles

The Stèles have been first performed by Dana Ciocarlie on March 23^rd, 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I have chosen out of this collection of 64 poems in prose (+ 11 unpublished) five that are different in character, each one inspiring a piece of a duration of 2-3 minutes : Écrit avec du Sang / Written with Blood (granitic, tensed and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