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- Kaija Saariaho
Nuits, adieux (1991)
- Edition Wilhelm Hansen Helsinki (World)
Commissioned by the Westdeutscher Rundfunk
- electronics (see link above for details)
- SATB
- Alto, Bass, Soprano, Tenor
- 10 min
- Jacques Roubaud, Honoré de Balzac
- French
Programme Note
For full information on the electronics, please see 'more info'.
Nuits, adieux is about singing, breathing, whispering, night time, farewells.
The piece consists of ten passages, five of them entitled Nuit , five remaining Adieu.
Two different text sources are used for these two kinds of passages: extracts from Jacques Roubaud's book Echanges de la lumière ('nights') and a fragment from Honoré de Balzac's novel Séraphita ('farewells').
The voices are amplified and processed during the performance. Each singer is using two microphones. One of them is used as a general mean of amplification, and is sent then to different, changing processing programs ( eg. Early reflection, gate reverb, delay). Audibly the most dominant processing is, nevertheless, done with the material sung into the second microphone. Here I use a reverberation, in which the reverb time is controlled by the dynamic changes of the voices. In general, this time is set to be relatively long, and the audible result is a continuously changing texture, which forms a background for the more present events sung into the first microphone.
The best introduction would be to read the texts I have chosen for the piece.
Nuits, adieux is was commisioned by the WDR, and the first performance was given by the Electric Phoenix in Cologne the 11th of May 1991.
The piece is dedicated for the memory of my grand mother.
K.S.
Jacques Roubaud, Echanges de la lumière
Editions A M Métaillé
Dans l'air
s'arrache
de la terre
au noir la lumière
et la crache
dans l'air
la nuit rêche jusqu'aux bords
des arbres
dans la terre
------
Nuit
tu
es venue
les
lumières
ont poussé
sur
les herbes, les pentes
vidées
de
lumières, les
lumières
sont
devenues
sombres
------
dans l'herbe
s'attachent
de la terre
au noir les grains les vagues
de la lumière
et les crachent
dans l'herbe la nuit réelle jus-
qu'au bord
des arbres
sous la terre
------
Nuit, c'est cela
chevelure
de noir révérend la lumière n'est
que pour le définir
ainsi
la nuit première précéda le jour
English Translation © BBC
In the air the light flies out of the ground
into the darkness and spits it into the air.
Night harsh in the ground up to the edge
of the trees
Night you have come,
lights have advanced over the grass,
the slopes devoid of light,
the lights have become dark
In the grass seed, waves of light
cling to the earth in the darkness and
spit them out onto the grass,
deep night up to the edge of the trees
beneath the ground
That’s what night is: a dark holy head of hair.
The light is only to define it.
Thus the first night gave way to day.
Honoré de Balzac, Sèraphîta, Berg International Editeurs
Adieu, granit, tu deviendras fleur; adieu, fleur, tu deviendras colombe; adieu colombe, tu seras femme;
adieu, femme, tu seras soufrance; adieu, homme, tu seras croyance; adieu, vous qui serez tout amour et prière.
English Translation © BBC
Farewell, granite, you will become a flower; farewell, flower, you will become a dove; farewell dove, you will be a woman; farewell woman, you will become pain; farewell, man, you will become belief; farewell, you who will be all love and prayer.
Nuits, adieux is about singing, breathing, whispering, night time, farewells.
The piece consists of ten passages, five of them entitled Nuit , five remaining Adieu.
Two different text sources are used for these two kinds of passages: extracts from Jacques Roubaud's book Echanges de la lumière ('nights') and a fragment from Honoré de Balzac's novel Séraphita ('farewells').
The voices are amplified and processed during the performance. Each singer is using two microphones. One of them is used as a general mean of amplification, and is sent then to different, changing processing programs ( eg. Early reflection, gate reverb, delay). Audibly the most dominant processing is, nevertheless, done with the material sung into the second microphone. Here I use a reverberation, in which the reverb time is controlled by the dynamic changes of the voices. In general, this time is set to be relatively long, and the audible result is a continuously changing texture, which forms a background for the more present events sung into the first microphone.
The best introduction would be to read the texts I have chosen for the piece.
Nuits, adieux is was commisioned by the WDR, and the first performance was given by the Electric Phoenix in Cologne the 11th of May 1991.
The piece is dedicated for the memory of my grand mother.
K.S.
Jacques Roubaud, Echanges de la lumière
Editions A M Métaillé
Dans l'air
s'arrache
de la terre
au noir la lumière
et la crache
dans l'air
la nuit rêche jusqu'aux bords
des arbres
dans la terre
------
Nuit
tu
es venue
les
lumières
ont poussé
sur
les herbes, les pentes
vidées
de
lumières, les
lumières
sont
devenues
sombres
------
dans l'herbe
s'attachent
de la terre
au noir les grains les vagues
de la lumière
et les crachent
dans l'herbe la nuit réelle jus-
qu'au bord
des arbres
sous la terre
------
Nuit, c'est cela
chevelure
de noir révérend la lumière n'est
que pour le définir
ainsi
la nuit première précéda le jour
English Translation © BBC
In the air the light flies out of the ground
into the darkness and spits it into the air.
Night harsh in the ground up to the edge
of the trees
Night you have come,
lights have advanced over the grass,
the slopes devoid of light,
the lights have become dark
In the grass seed, waves of light
cling to the earth in the darkness and
spit them out onto the grass,
deep night up to the edge of the trees
beneath the ground
That’s what night is: a dark holy head of hair.
The light is only to define it.
Thus the first night gave way to day.
Honoré de Balzac, Sèraphîta, Berg International Editeurs
Adieu, granit, tu deviendras fleur; adieu, fleur, tu deviendras colombe; adieu colombe, tu seras femme;
adieu, femme, tu seras soufrance; adieu, homme, tu seras croyance; adieu, vous qui serez tout amour et prière.
English Translation © BBC
Farewell, granite, you will become a flower; farewell, flower, you will become a dove; farewell dove, you will be a woman; farewell woman, you will become pain; farewell, man, you will become belief; farewell, you who will be all love and prayer.
Features
- Kaija Saariaho’s Poetic Montages
- From the very beginning of her career as a composer, Kaija Saariaho has turned to poetry as a material and inspiration for her music. The forms and logics of poetry have played a defining role in her output since then.
Reviews
... the four singers purr, whoosh, buzz, wail, huff, and gargle, but within a softly controlled dynamic range; the atmosphere is eerie but never harsh or unpleasant. The live electronics amplify the voices, adding delay and a long, echo-chamber-like reverberation that makes the singers sound like they’re projecting their sorrow — the fragmented text is culled from contemporary poet Jacques Roubaud and Balzac — into an abyss.
7th July 2023
Discography
Saariaho: Reconnaissance
- LabelBIS
- Catalogue NumberBIS2662
- ConductorNils Schweckendiek
- EnsembleHelsinki Chamber Choir / Uusinta Ensemble
- Released30th June 2023
As Dreams
- LabelBIS
- Catalogue NumberBIS-2139
- ConductorGrete Pedersen
- EnsembleThe Norwegian Soloists' Choir / Oslo Sinfonietta
- Released7th September 2016
- LabelMusica Sibila
- Catalogue NumberSIB003
- SoloistAnssi Karttunen, cello
- LabelMusique Francaise d'Aujourd'hui
- Catalogue NumberMFA 216030
- EnsembleEnsemble Vox nova
