for symphonic orchestra
‘‘L’Office des adieux’’ (Ceremony of Goodbyes) belongs to the same family of scores which, from ‘‘Ballade des pendus’’ to ‘‘Psaume 129 (de profundis)’’, via ‘‘Chants d’exil’’, take a similar poetic route: in response to a moaning stemming from the depths of either the world of the dead or of a disenchanted life, a world of light rises, the advent of which annihilates the limits of this terrestrial life.
Though the work stands as a whole, in fact it consists of what one would call in dramatical terms two ‘‘acts’’. As one listens to the three successive processions throughout the first act, one can perceive the constituent elements of a funeral ceremony: lamentations (contained or unbridled), ritual marches, psalmodies in response, alternated or mixed.
When listening to the second act, processional in nature too, one can think of Hieronymus Bosch’s ‘‘Ascension to Paradise’’, which guided my creative work.
The music steeps itself little by little in the melody of the Gregorian chant ‘‘In paradisum’’ which, ten years before, I had symbolically quoted at the end of ‘‘Ballade des pendus’’ (an aspect which emphasizes the relation between the two opuses).
‘‘L’Office des adieux’’ is a commissioned work for the State, premiered in 1999 by the Lille National Orchestra, conducted by Stéphane Cardon, to whom the piece is dedicated.
2.2.2.2./4.2.3.1./timp.2perc./1h./14.12.10.8.6.
(project under revision for 3.3.3.3./4.4.3.1./timp.4perc./ Pno/1h./14.12.10.8.6.)
composed in: 1997-1998
commissioned work for the State
premiered in: 1999, Lille, at the Nouveau Siècle, by the Lille National Orchestra, Stéphane Cardon, cond.
duration: 25’
publisher: Leduc