Maurice Ohana

Signes (1965) Duration: 20’

 

1. L’Arbre dans la nuit

2. L’Arbre animé d’oiseaux

3. L’Arbre noyé de pluie

4. L’Arbre prisonnier des fils de la Vierge

5. L’Arbre battu par le vent

6. L’Arbre brûlé par le soleil

 

Instruments:

Flute, 2 sitars (in third tones and chromatic) (1 player), piano and 4 percussions

 

Written for Ensemble “Ars Nova”

 

Michel Debost, flute

Christian Ivaldi, piano

Monique Rollin, sitars

Jean-Pierre Drouet, Sylvio Gualda, Boris de Vinogradov e Gaston Sylvestre, percussion.

 

” Signes is an assembled suite of pieces for a group of instruments strongly characterized by their timber, dynamics and range … Each piece is attached with a maximum of conciseness and rigor to a number of melodic and rhythmic figures assembled according to their affinities or contrasting virtues in pursuit of a magic sound. Rather than a title, each of these pieces highlight a value of archetype graphics, a generator of variants or catalyzing the color of its first element. Hence the general title of the piece “(Maurice Ohana)

 

Moreover, these six pieces are rooted in the contemplation of the tree “in the night, animated birds, drenched in rain, prisoner of the son of the Virgin, windswept, burned Surfer.” Graphics replacing the titles are placed on the score, they are designed by Maurice Ohana himself.

 

Annotated by Laurent Warnier