Creation
04/11/2018 - Cologne (Germany), Philharmonie - Anaïs Gaudemard (harp)
Sponsor
Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and Philharmonie de Paris
Dedication
to Anaïs Gaudemard
Notice
Nighthawks is a work for solo harp. When Anaïs Gaudemard [1] asked me to write this work, she wanted to integrate it into a program on the theme of birds. I immediately thought of the work Nighthawks (1942) - or Night Birds - by the American realist painter Edward Hopper (1882-1967). Inspired by this work, I designed the piece in one piece as a trip to the heart of this painting.
Hopper projects there a "snapshot" of American daily life. The scene takes place at a late hour of the night and several atmospheres emerge from it. Indeed, the eye is at the same time attracted by this dark, deserted, and immaculate street of an American downtown; intrigued by the frozen situation of the four characters inside a brightly colored diner; and hypnotized by the glare of the huge bar window. Contrasting with the darkness of the street, the light from this neon-lit window is striking. It thus separates the two atmospheres of the painting. The view of the spectator through it is from outside to inside the bar. The absence of an exit door gives the impression that the characters are isolated and their solitude is further reinforced by this glass which surrounds the illuminated stage - as if they were "under a bell". Inside the diner, a man seen from behind is eating; a couple stand side by side (the man smokes; the woman is dressed in red); a server is busy. We don't know anything about them. What are they doing at such a late hour? Where is the exit? What are they discussing? Do they know each other?
I wanted to musically conceive this scene from the viewer's point of view, as if we were caught up, sucked into the very interior of the painting.
The introduction - Mysterious, dark - sounds the twelve strokes of midnight and plunges us into the darkness of this typically American street. From this nocturnal atmosphere is born a strange song - almost "padded" with xylophonic sounds - as if we could not hear it distinctly through the luminous glass which separates the street and the bar.
Caught up in this bright light, we pass through the window and gradually return inside the diner by means of a hypnotic loop repeated tirelessly, as if we were entering a state of trance - Hypnotic. It is the underlying tension of this frozen situation of the characters that I wanted to represent in the central passage - Rhythmic and pulsed.
Then, we come out of this feeling of hypnosis by passing through the bar window again and rediscover the nocturnal atmosphere of this deserted and immaculate street - Hypnotic - Mysterious.
Camille Pepin
[1] Creator and dedicatee of the piece
Hurry
What a simply beautiful work here! Camille Pépin, born in 1990, had a career marked by dance and composition. But we discover here quite simply an artist, who invites us to the contemplation of a work of the painter Edward Hopper. Having worked on composition and orchestration with Thierry Perrine as well as with Thierry Escaich, Guillaume Connesson and Marc-André Dalbavie, she has forged an original language which allows her here to bewitch us both by her music and by contemplation of the painting. We can judge by the interpretation of this piece on YouTube that we will listen to while looking at the painting. Of course, you can also listen to the work as it is: it is sufficient. But with the painting ...
Daniel blackstone
Music Education n ° 128 (Jan-Feb 2020)
Riferimento contrassegnato
JJ2253
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