Parfum de la Nuit

For a few years now I have been fascinated by the imaginary poetic of Jules Breton (1827- 1906), writer and also painter of the Barbizon school. This was already the case when I composed ?Tableau de la nuit? for three female voices a cappella (first performed in 2006 in Royaumont). His poem "Parfum de la nuit" is a realistic description of an evening landscape in the Artois, that often overcast region in northern France. It uses a range of simple terms giving a striking image of nature, in grey tones, one that evokes for me the perfume of the night, as one might feel the resonance of the aural tone-colour. I composed this score in accordance with a certain dramaturgy, in the manner of a theatrical play, by looking for several types of tone-colour for the soprano part and by using a scale of words treated at times like a collage, at times like a highly lyrical sequence. I wanted, moreover, an organic fusion of the five instruments and the voice.