Lecture d'empreintes

Lecture d’empreintes ("Reading prints ")

For 12 singers and saxophone quartet

The origin of Lecture d’empreintes lies in the will to magnify the group. I saw it as a necessity for me to write the text that would be sung by the choir. Indeed, the vast majority of literary texts are written through an "I" point of view, but what I needed was a "we" perspective. A consequence of this will is the exclusion of any soloist aspect.

This work alternates between two different space-time dimensions. One of them relates to the permanent presence of a common bond between human beings – a vertical vision of humanity in a way – while the other one evokes our temporality, our momentary self and our existence in a horizontal manner.

The text, by its structure, tones, flow and rhythm, as well as its focus on the meaning of verbs, presents essential ramifications in my conception of the musical universe, and it constitutes the basis of this composition. Except for the introduction of the piece, which is intended to strengthen the two first syllables of the text "En Nous" ("In Us"), I had the will to remain in a sort of evidence, which ambition is to combine – in a well-balanced manner –awareness of the word with musical perception.

This piece is about twenty minutes long. It is dedicated to the composer Emmanuel Nunes.

Chœur de Lecture d’empreintes (Choir)

In Us
A same wave
Even – Blue – Infinite
In all places – Ageless – Amongst us,

We have but very little time to be in this instant.

Further, Greater, Larger,
The desire to feel our reality,
We have but very little time to be in this instant.
To forget the child dazzled
By the promises of greatness,
No one will speak in our name.
To ignore the voices united in
Useless litany,
Our voices die, not being able to meet.
Flee ! From this world smitten with the desire
Of the image of love,
A look trapped by our souls’ mirror,
Love to live, live to love,
What would my voice be without yours ?

A same wave,
In Us, knotting, 
Binds us,
Beyond the numbers
Of space and time.
In us, lively,
A same wave
Takes our lives away
In the distant vividness.

Higher, Wider, Immense,
The sea rises inside us,
Our voices move forward inside her…
Fear floods back.
On top of the wave,
The truth, brief, striking and futureless.
The sea inside us, Our voices inside her, Moved…

Still, and forever,
The wave spreads
The answer to the livings,
Who first sculpted,
In the essence of their voices,
A word of love.

The sea rises inside us,
Our voices far off inside her…
We have but cried for too long
In front of so much beauty
Together, on the prow, looking through the wind,
Here, we accept to be happy !
Nobody will be thanked

A same wave…
Follow the bolt of its wing,
Let its flight inspire our voices
With new curves,

Wide, Deep, Timeless,

Standing, amongst us, the poet
Added
At first,
There was no beginning.

Patrice Rault
Traduction Victor Mortimer