MÉDITATION TENDUE (1999)

Third part of JARDIN ZEN - Editions Leduc
clarinet - duration : 2’
commissioned by Radio France for the radio program Alla Breve
premiere : December 4th, 1999, France, CRC of Sarcelles
Pierre DUTRIEU (clarinet)

 

Programme note

Méditation tendue is the third part of my work Jardin Zen for clarinet and electronic sounds on CD. In this part, situated in the center of the partition, the clarinet is now soloist, without any electronic sounds.

Because I consider melody as one of the noble parameters of the Music, I looked for a long time in this domain to draw a personnal way. It is the discovery of a japanese traditional music for flute "Shakuhachi" that triggered off my work on the melodic phrase which I deepen in Méditation tendue, as well as in each of my others works.

Some characteristics of occidental melodies are overlapped with modes types, ornamentation and conception of a longer time that characterize that music of Far East.

With Méditation tendue, and despite the brevity of the piece, I wanted that the clarinet evokes the contemplative state of monks of Zen Buddhism. Facing their garden and during long hours, the monks meditate on emptiness, between what is fixed and what is changing, to search life’s essence itself and attempt to reach the supreme illumination.

3A

 

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