Maurice Ohana
Sibylle 17′ (1968)
for voix de femme (soprano), percussion and bande magnétique (tape)
multi-percussion: crotales(1 oct.), vibraphone, wood blocks(3), temple blocks(3), log drum, claves, maracas, guiro, tambourine, snare drum, dumbegs(4), Chinese cymbals(4), suspended cymbals(4); with female voice/crotales/Chinese cymbal/suspended cymbal; tape
Dedication to Isabel Garisanz, Premiered in June 1968, Paris (French Radio) by Isabel Garisanz(soprano), Benard Balet(percussion)
“Adventure through the female voice, over time, this work composed as a stained glass window, uses two interpreters, a soprano and a percussionist. Alternately mythic, familiar, sophisticated or prophetic, the voice of the oracle seems to emerge from the mists of time, the streets of a metropolis at night, or a wild rain forest. The vocal part ranges from tenderness to sarcasm, shouts or whisperes, the fury of singing blossoms into a contrapuntal structure. The Percussion and voice exchange timbers to blend with the torrent of a magnetic tape. Here the fire blends with the percussion and the cries, grows and dies in a landscape of ashes just before a final sustained note where the voice of a star survives. “(Maurice Ohana)
Annotated by Laurent Warnier