La Musique - for flute and alto flute *live at Center for New Music Feb 2, 2018 by Brett Austin Eastman published on 2020-02-07T07:27:11Z Siroko Duo performing La Musique by Brett Austin Eastman on February 2, 2018 at Center For New Music, presented by Hot Air Music Festival. Jessie Nucho - alto flute Victoria Hauk - flute https://sirokoduo.com/ LA MUSIQUE is a work written for flute and alto flute. The title is taken directly from the poem of the same name by Charles Baudelaire. The piece was composed using three compositional ideas. The primary compositional idea is a musical transcription of the poem using a comprehensive cryptogram developed for the piece. In this cryptogrammic technique designed to transcribe French text into melodic phrases, each letter in the alphabet corresponds to a specific musical pitch and duration, and quite often is accompanied by a fricative textural sound to mimic the pronunciation of the letter - aspirated articulation. The second compositional technique used in the piece involves a melodic rendition of recordings of myself reading the text out loud. Lastly, a lyrical theme serves as a link between the first and second ideas. The compositional techniques complement each other like a mosaic pattern, modeled after the parallelism of the poem’s verses. The form of the poem influences the form of the piece. Textures and timbres in the flute writing are informed by the music of the spoken language. LA MUSIQUE was written for Siroko Duo. LA MUSIQUE La musique souvent me prend comme une mer! Vers ma pâle étoile, Sous un plafond de brume ou dans un vaste éther, Je mets à la voile; La poitrine en avant et les poumons gonfés Comme de la toile J'escalade le dos des fots amoncelés Que la nuit me voile; Je sens vibrer en moi toutes les passions D'un vaisseau qui souffre; Le bon vent, la tempête et ses convulsions Sur l'immense gouffre Me bercent. D'autres fois, calme plat, grand miroir De mon désespoir! MUSIC Music often moves me like vast waters! Toward my obscure star, Under a fog’s roof or in a boundless ether, Sail set for the afar ; Chest out and lungs full of air Spread out like a tarp, I skate the backs of mounding waves That the night warps; I feel vibrating in me all of the passions Of a writhing ship; The strong wind, the storm and its tractions On this immensely wide split I lull. Other times, still as glass, great mirror Of my hopelessness! Translation: Brett Austin Eastman Genre Flute Duo