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Programme Note

The idea for Vent nocturne (‘Night Wind’) first occurred to me while I was reading a bilingual edition on the poems of Georg Trakl. This synchronicity of the two languages - German and French - led me to muse on the relationship between the viola and electronics.

The work is in two parts: Sombres mirroirs (‘Dark Mirrors’) and Soupirs de l'obscur (‘Breaths of the Obscure’). These, as their names suggest, focus first on symmetrical thinking and then on the variation of the glissando, not unlike a sigh, that rounds off the phrases.

To me the sound of the viola has always suggested that of breathing, which, along with the wind, became a major element of the electronic part.

Kaija Saariaho

ELECTRONICS: click here to download