Five poems by Claude-Henry du Bord, excerpts from the collection Chants nus

Dedicated to Vincent Le Texier and Ancuza Aprodu

Delatour Editions - Duration: ca 12'

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Composed in 2002, my cycle for soprano and piano entitled Chants nus consists of five poems taken from the eponymous collection of the poet Claude-Henry du Bord. This choice of poems mainly expressed the lightness of love relationships.

Five other poems, from the same collection, are the source of my new work Your body forever (title suggested by the poet himself).

It is the extension of this first cycle but under a more tragic aspect.

I did not opt for a cycle made up of five distinct works but for a one-movement form in which each part corresponds to one of the songs. The same constituent elements support the entire construction of the work. The writing frees itself from an overly direct relationship between what the words suggest and their possible musical translation, thus extending the correspondences, multiplicities and ambiguities of readings contained in the poems themselves.

The musical writing creates a polyphony of motifs that reflect each other like the multiplicity of possible readings of the five songs.

As with my Chants nus , the piano part - fully equal to the vocal part - exceeds a simple accompaniment.

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Claude-Henry du Bord:

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"A man in love looks at a woman. It sends him back to himself. The woman also returns to herself: the physical night of feelings.

The only certain thing is uncertainty - "no matter how much I do" - and reflects a conception of existence: under the warmth of the other, I am revealed to myself but in uncertainty, I am little. Tragic power of existence.

There are several readings of each of these songs structured by organically linked cells.

A work is based on the relationship to the body. The body does not lie: the truth, the real passes through the relationship to the body, it is embodied.

They are songs because my conception of poetry is that it must be said, the absolute power of speech. Deliver a message: we send it out to the world.

My texts call the music".