STORK NESTS

babble-drama for solo viola and recording of children’s voices

(2007)

Duration: 41’

Instrumentation: Solo viola and broadcasting system of pre-recorded sound with two speakers placed on stage on each side of the violist

Premiere: Karine Lethiec (viola), Concert of the Friends of the Prague Spring Festival Association, November 1st, 2007

Publisher: The Henry Lemoine Editions display more information on this work on
http://www.henry-lemoine.com/fr/catalogue/compositeur/maratka-krystof

For more information, contact:
Henry Lemoine Editions – Paris
Mrs Laurence Fauvet - Rental and purchase of score
orchestre@editions-lemoine.fr / +33 (0) 1 56 68 86 75
Jobert Editions

Henry Lemoine Editions – Paris
Mr. Benoît Walther - Promotion and distribution service
bwalther@editions-lemoine.fr / +33 (0) 1 56 68 86 74
Jobert Editions

Recording:

Karine Lethiec, solo viola
Yan and David (0 to 3 years old), recorded children’s voices

Extract from the score:

Notes on the work:

This work eludes a limpid characterisation. It is composed as a synthesis of several musical forms: concerto, opera, oratorio, melodrama, play, monodrama, fantasy... The composition of Stork Nests, babble-drama for viola and recording of children’s voices, is in the logical continuity of two works written not long before and which examine the birth of communication and artistic expression in mankind:

Otisk (Imprint), Palaeolithic Site of Pre-instrumental Music, for symphonic orchestra (2004) is a vision of the origins of music in the Palaeolithic era, with sound reflections of discovered prehistoric instruments - reindeer phalanges, scrapers, ocarinas, bullroarers, various percussion instruments, sounds of stone carving, human voices...

Luminarium, Concerto for Clarinet and Orchestra, is a kaleidoscope of harmonies and sounds from all around the world, a kind of brief anthology of traditional music that sets up to observe the fascinating diversity of multiple musical languages ​​in various regions of the Earth.

This attachment to the mysteries of the origins has been complemented by my experience of father: since the first seconds of the life of my two children, I have been recording their vocal expressions and observing the development of their language – from shouts and small noises to the first syllables. In Stork Nests, these recordings (representations of the children) are used as the main fabric of the musical discourse, in permanent dialogue with the viola part (representation of the mother) played in real time. The subtitle “babble-drama” refers to the form of the work, which is composed of small scenes and contrasting situations forming a universe reminiscent of musical theatre, obviously without any verbal narration." K.M.