These Nocturnes (part 1, part 2, finale) offer an immersion into these other worlds, parallel to our own, prison, abbey. And above all, into another time. A journey through all kinds of choral writing, sometimes more noisy than musical, with locks and a sheet of metal made by the prison’s technical services. Four walls of singers surrounding the audience, who themselves operate the locks at key moments in the work (!), and the sound of a guard’s footsteps suggested by taps on the sheet metal, reinforce the feeling of a singular experience, which is brought to a close by the heartbreakingly sincere letters exchanged between the oldest prisoner and the oldest monk.
Recordings, audio extracts: CD “Clairvaux, Or les murs …”, label Aeon AECD 1092, distribution Harmonia Mundi. Les Cris de Paris choir conducted by Geoffroy Jourdain.
Difficulty rating: difficult
Inmates of Clairvaux (parts I and III), and monks of Cîteaux (parts II and III)
French
Mixed a cappella choir (or chamber choir)
The work uses 4 locks from Clairvaux, as well as a fragment of sheet metal from the passageways.
For the locks, contact the Carmen-Forté association.
The sheet metal should be thicker than a gong, with a deeper, duller sound.
Duration: 40 minutes
Cycle in 3 distinct parts. The first, based on texts by prisoners, is to be performed with four walls of singers around the audience. The second part mirrors the first, with a retrograde time effect. In the third and final part, the singers are arranged in a star shape: 2 inverted triangles, each with a trio of male or female singers at its apex, a canon between the three groups, rotating in one direction for the male voices and in the other for the female voices, with a seventh group relocated, invisible and distant, pronouncing the words that Brother Luc lends to the Nuit du cœur.