Danses

MENUT Benoît
Quatuors flute, Strings
ISMN 979-0-56025-332-9
15'
conducteur
Artchipel

08

Jan

2014

21

Feb

2017

Ensemble Hélios
Ensemble Hélios

19,00 
38,00 

The Danses for flute and string trio were commissioned by the Hélios ensemble, to whom the work is dedicated. They were premiered on January 8, 2014 in Paris, at the Grand Palais, during the closing of the exhibition dedicated to the great painter Félix Vallotton (1865-1925).

Comprising four dances, the piece alternates between different moods and energies.

The first dance, entitled Danse rituelle, sets the main motif of the work in an incantatory atmosphere. The second, Danse des Balkans, is highly rhythmic, inspired by certain rhythms of this region, and is a kind of obstinate progression towards a breaking point. The third, Danse incantatoire, is on the contrary very lyrical, and develops around a rather mathematical basic idea of increasing and then decreasing harmonic intervals. The last, finally, is a dance of “Coucher de soleil, mer haute gris bleu” (“Sunset, high blue-grey sea”), which takes its title from a painting by Félix Vallotton that made a particular impression on me at the opening of this exhibition. I chose to use a dance that was very much in vogue at the time of the painting’s creation (1911), the Cake-Walk, which in its time inspired composers such as Claude Debussy, a contemporary of the painter. I quote Léon Dequin’s Le Vrai Cake-Walk, which I destructure and veil at times using elements from the piece’s first two movements.

Benoît Menut

Description

Additional information

Weight0,350 kg
Dimensions24 × 32 × 0,5 cm
Support

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