When Elsa de Lacerda and Pierre Solot commissioned me to write a piece for violin and piano inspired by protest or revolutionary songs, I initially thought of composing variations on one of the gospels celebrating the struggle for the emancipation of the African American community. However, I ultimately chose Untemationale as the base material, a material that seemed all the richer to me because it is not based on a single theme but combines several.
The piece consists of three movements that can be played independently. I titled it Tabula rasa, referring to the famous words "Let us make a clean slate of the past" and also as an ironic nod to the avant-garde slogan of the composers of the 1950s associated with the Darmstadt School.
The first movement is built on the slightly limping pendulum of the keyboard; like the tinkling of bells, it accompanies the theme of the Internationale disguised as a lullaby. The second is characterized by its dynamism and clear harmonies; in a lively dialogue, piano and violin converse over incisive rhythms. As for the third, it unfolds a series of variations, sometimes enigmatic, sometimes consoling, playing on close canons between the two instruments; an allusion to the Estonian composer Arvo Pärt, author of a famous Tabula rasa, I allowed myself bell imitations in the spirit of the tintinnabulation effects dear to him.
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