In the Beginning Was the Word

Make the silence talk'La Muette knew how to make the silence talk like no one', writes Djavann in his book (La Muette, © Flammarion 2008). Those words deeply touched me for they express one of the most beautiful metaphors in music. Through the lines of discourse, beyond words, I was listening to the silence of 'La Muette'. A rare and intense listening which joins the same internal listening I use when I'm writing my score. I was listening to La Muette, I decided to write a new piece to make the silent voice of La Muette told by Chahdortt Djavann sound through music. Choosing the extracts The text put in music is composed of short extracts from Djavann's story. I focused on this woman's portrait, who conquers her freedom through silence in which she forms a strong love relationship with her niece Fatemeh on the one hand, and the Uncle on the other hand. 'She had made her silence become her art of living, her freedom' writes Djavann. The extremely dramatic tension, the flow of the singing in Persian language, and the oppression in relation to the Iranian context are trying to underline the independent beauty of that woman who resists and exists without a voice. Story A young 15 years old Iranian girl named Fatemeh is in jail. Waiting for her death sentence, she writes the story of her aunt on a small notebook, 'so that someone remembers La Muette and myself'. The young teenager was raised by her aunt who becomes mute because she decided to stop talking on a dark day of her own childhood when she was interrogated, never to tell THE truth. An aunt whose silence makes even more fascinating, haughty, with an insolent look, cigarette at her lips, bare-footed and without any scarf on her head. 'La Muette' had made her silence become her art of living, her freedom. Around her, women start to talk, even considering her mad, for only a mad person could act this way. Fatemeh loves her mute aunt unconditionally, that is how she wants to become a woman, by being like her, fascinated by her silence and her excesses. La Muette embodies a figure of Freedom and makes us remember that in some countries, the woman who won't be submissive risks capital punishment. She will be hung. Following this beautiful text by Chahdortt Djavann, 'La Muette', a powerful text, stiff, tensed, without any lyricism nor compromises, which takes place in Iran under the Mollahs' regime. Persian: Phonological material / Compositional material Djavann's story is written in French. I asked Baharé Khadjé-Nouri to translate the text into Persian, and worked with her on pronunciation, accentuation, metric and the structure of the language, and I thank her again for that. I spent a long time having some people reading me the text in Persian and through listening I immersed myself in that sound universe. From this linguistic material, the beginning of the piece starts with the constitution of a tank of sound objects which will constitute parts of the compositional material. To compose the phonological tank, I worked on writing the pronunciation that lies at the origin of every possible vocal composition, writing the tone as well as the 'percussive - resounding' aspects of phonemes, multiple uses of fricative consonants or sibilants. Finally I used the vocal treatment of the phoneme through modes of play in relation to sprechsang: sing -inspire, or -expire, -blow, -chanting, -whispering, -spitting, -speaking. But a purely phonetic analysis of the vocal structures composing the sung part would reduce the word to its mere phonetic entity. The phonological material then constituted a compositional material by giving to the sung word its semantic entity. Form of the piece To strip the drama off every narrative element, at least of the discursive and linear character of the story, I first re-organized parts of the text extracted from the whole book in an order fitting the form I wanted to give to the piece (except for the beginning and ending which are kept in their linear forms). I imagined Fatemeh in jail, whose memories bounced between the four walls of her cell: recurring musical material, re-injected in an obsessive way, disjointed and contrasted, continuously modified each time, bouncing from one sequence to the next in another state. The piece is divided into 5 sequences, between each of them is an instrumental interlude with a voice-off, the voice of the present in the cell that contrasts with the singing voice of the sequence, evocation of memories of La Muette (sequence 1: preamble, sequence 2: portrait of La Muette, sequence 3: La Muette and Fatemeh, sequence 4: La Muette and the Uncle, sequence 5: epilogue). Electroacoustic setupFor this piece, I wrote the electroacoustic parts myself at the same time I was writing the instrumental parts. The electroacoustic setup is here considered as a whole instrument, an instrument added to the 12 others electroacoustic instruments and to Donatienne's voice. The electroacoustic sounds are divided into three types: - Samples from the singer's voice and instruments of the TM+ ensemble transformed - The narrator's voice Baharé Khadjé-Nouri in Persian, original version or transformed - Extra-musical sounds As for the synchronization between the acoustic and the electroacoustic scores, we will use for the first time an innovative application developed by Frédéric Bevilacqua and Bruno Zamborlin, not to follow the moves as we did it in StreicherKreis (my string quartet created in November 2008), but to follow the voice and orchestra. Thus, we will be using an 'audio-following', which constituted a first. This setup of recognition and following will allow the synchronization between instrumental and electroacoustic scores in a musical and precise way. Concerning the interactivity between performers and device, it will all be in real-time. Characteristics of the musicians' sound will 'interpret' what comes out of the speakers. The musicians will define the settings of the sound transformations, in terms of space, transposition, tone or length. This new piece expresses a message through the choice of subject that goes beyond strictly music. For me, it is important that both the composer and writer can invest their work into problematics which they're confronted to because they are immediate witnesses. / Soprano Et Percussions

Featuring Easy Piano arrangements of 21 more Classical Favourites, this sheet music songbook will satisfy any beginner's desire to play the most popular and enduring classical pieces ever composed by the masters of the genre. These simple arrangements feature fingering guidance, song background notes and helpful performance hints.With some of the most beautiful classical music included here, this Really Easy Piano songbook will let you play the standards, the traditionals and the essentials quickly and easily. Schubert's Ave Maria, Debussy's En Bateau, Mendelssohn's Song Without Words and the all-time favourite, Vivaldi's Spring from The Four Seasons are included, among many others. Each of these composers represents a very different school of music, so you'll love picking out your favourite or playing through them all and then exploring the rest of their oeuvre.This instalment of the Really Easy Piano series puts the best-loved Classical Favourites right at the fingertips of beginning pianists. All too often playing the works of these composers is but a dream of players who are just starting out. Now, such masters of composition as Beethoven, Mozart, Puccini, Wagner and Handel are immediately accessible to pianists in the early stages of their playing, letting them learn these glorious melodies and soaring chords without the decades of practice necessary to master the full arrangements. Even though they are simplified, they sound absolutely great, from the lively to the melancholy and everything in between, these pieces are sure to impress any audience.Not only do you get Easy Piano arrangements of tunes like Sarabande, Vocalise and Dance Of The Knights, as with all the books in the Really Easy Piano series some fascinating background information on each song is included, as well as really useful practical performance advice, ensuring that you nail every note and play every phrase perfectly.This book of Really Easy Piano: More Classical Favourites features a great number of beautiful classical pieces that are easy to play and sound utterly fantastic. This book is suitable for pianists at the early grades, bringing amazing classical music to the fingertips of beginners, enabling you to learn the timeless pieces that we return to again and again. / Piano

This book is great for keyboardists who have learned the basics of jazz harmony and improvisation. It introduces the modes of the major scale, chord extensions, making the changes, using chromatic and guide tones, chord substitution, 'rhythm changes,' the blues, altered dominant chords, and more. Continuing the format of Beginning Jazz Keyboard, new concepts are accompanied by etudes and songs for practice. Packed with harmony and improvisation ideas, Intermediate Jazz Keyboard is essential for any serious student of jazz keyboard. Companion MP3 audio demonstration tracks are included and can be streamed online or downloaded. / Clavier

The Worship Piano Method is designed for beginning piano students who desire to praise God through His gift of music. Using solid pedagogy, appealing songs and fun activities, this course provides a strong foundation to develop both piano skills and a lifestyle of worship. This songbook corresponding to Book 2 features a dozen songs with access to practice and performance audio tracks you can download online. / Piano

Dip In to this great selection of popular songs, jazz standards, film themes and show tunes! All the tunes are specially arranged for Clarinet, with chord symbols at concert pitch for easy accompaniment, and are graded to suit a wide range of playing levels. Each song is awarded a star rating based on difficulty - making this folio ideal for everyone, from the beginning clarinet player to the experienced musician. Includes hit songs by The Beatles, Coldplay, Oasis, Elvis Presley, KT Tunstall, James Blunt, Frank Sinatra, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Jeff Buckley and many more. Where else can you find such a fun collection of tunes, from such a wide variety of artists? / Clarinette / 160 pages / Partition

Große Credomesse. Par MOZART WOLFGANG AMADEUS. Here, as also in his earlier 'Litte Credo Mass' KV 192, Mozart made use of a church music device which can be traced back in south-German and Austrian church music to the beginning of the 18th century: frequent repetition of the opening words of the 'Credo'. This presupposes that the setting of the words of the intonation 'Credo in unum Deum' as part of an ensemble composition, which for centuries had been intoned in plainsong by the priest, had become liturgically acceptable. It was only a small and syntactically logical step for the word 'Credo' to be repeated before the individual articles of belief, thus strengthening the declaration of faith. / Messe / Répertoire / Solistes SATB, Choeur SATB, 2 Hautbois, 2 Clarinet

Große Credomesse. Par MOZART WOLFGANG AMADEUS. Here, as also in his earlier 'Litte Credo Mass' KV 192, Mozart made use of a church music device which can be traced back in south-German and Austrian church music to the beginning of the 18th century: frequent repetition of the opening words of the 'Credo'. This presupposes that the setting of the words of the intonation 'Credo in unum Deum' as part of an ensemble composition, which for centuries had been intoned in plainsong by the priest, had become liturgically acceptable. It was only a small and syntactically logical step for the word 'Credo' to be repeated before the individual articles of belief, thus strengthening the declaration of faith. / Messe / Répertoire / Solistes SATB, Choeur SATB, 2 Hautbois, 2 Clarinet

Große Credomesse. Par MOZART WOLFGANG AMADEUS. Here, as also in his earlier 'Litte Credo Mass' KV 192, Mozart made use of a church music device which can be traced back in south-German and Austrian church music to the beginning of the 18th century: frequent repetition of the opening words of the 'Credo'. This presupposes that the setting of the words of the intonation 'Credo in unum Deum' as part of an ensemble composition, which for centuries had been intoned in plainsong by the priest, had become liturgically acceptable. It was only a small and syntactically logical step for the word 'Credo' to be repeated before the individual articles of belief, thus strengthening the declaration of faith. / Messe / Répertoire / Solistes SATB, Choeur SATB, 2 Hautbois, 2 Clarines

Große Credomesse. Par MOZART WOLFGANG AMADEUS. Here, as also in his earlier 'Litte Credo Mass' KV 192, Mozart made use of a church music device which can be traced back in south-German and Austrian church music to the beginning of the 18th century: frequent repetition of the opening words of the 'Credo'. This presupposes that the setting of the words of the intonation 'Credo in unum Deum' as part of an ensemble composition, which for centuries had been intoned in plainsong by the priest, had become liturgically acceptable. It was only a small and syntactically logical step for the word 'Credo' to be repeated before the individual articles of belief, thus strengthening the declaration of faith. / Messe / Répertoire / Solistes SATB, Choeur SATB, 2 Hautbois, 2 Clarinet

Treasured Hymn Favorites is a collection of well-known Hymns arranged for easy Tri-Chord piano and includes an instructional Play-Along CD. This new sacred title, featuring some of the most recognizable hymns arranged for a beginning student, uses just three (I-IV-V) chords. Praise and worship in song and jubilation. This fantastic assortment, only available from Santorella Publications, will make a wonderful addition to your sacred repertoire. / Piano

These 48 pieces were composed over a period of two decades, beginning in 1832, and published in eight groups of six each. Many of these songs were dedicated to the women in Mendelssohn's life and reflect the sunniest qualities of his melodiousness, spontaneity and invention. Maurice Hinson has skillfully researched and edited these works back to their original form and provides a very informative introduction, which includes many detailed suggestions for a stylistic interpretation and performance, as well as biographical information on the composer's life.

Motette für gemischten Chor. Par SCHULTZ WOLFGANG-ANDREAS. The title's Third Word of Creation refers to verses from Rilke's Book of Hours which indicate the fear of what other delicate experiments God might come up with after 'light' and 'man'. Schultz contradicts the text by combining it with the monolithic beginning of the First Book of Moses in the Old Testament, which is imbued with the rightness of God's actions, as well as with lines by the Persian poet Rumi in the translation by Friedrich Rückert. The latter indicate the comforting certainty of rebirth as a higher being up to the unfathomable spirit of God. The composer accomplishes the feat of weaving all three levels into a complex, ethereal structure in which the words nevertheless always remain clearly understandable./ Répertoire / SATB a Cappella