concert band
“In 1988 I composed the music for a film documentary by Marie Décary, the subject of which was the participation of two Canadian artists, the Vancouverite Roland Brener and Montrealer Michel Goulet, at the celebrated Venice Biennale.”
Fascinated by the film maker’s images depicting “contemporary” works in stark relief against the background of a Renaissance decor laden with historical resonance, I chose as a compositional basis materials that were not only inspired by this music, but that would actually bring it to life using transformational techniques that I have developed over the years. My choice settled on one of 46 motets by the Spanish composer Tomas Luis de Victoria (1548-1611) who had lived in Venice and whose four-voice responsory Tradiderunt Me In Manus Impiorum (“They have delivered me into the hands of the unfaithful”) immediately seduced me. I later decided to orchestrate some parts of this film music and make it into a self-contained work. Tradiderunt Me In Manus Impiorum I resulted as the first of a series of five works based on Victoria’s motet: Golgot(h)a (1990), Encore ces questions sans réponse… (1991), Tradiderunt Me In Manus Impiorum II (1992) and Le Voyage (1999-2002) followed, the last written for solo mezzo soprano, mixed choir and full orchestra, currently completes the cycle.
In addition to the motet, there are two additional citations, both from Stravinski’s Canticum Sacrum: the repeated notes from the beginning of “Euntes in mundum” as well as the six final measures of “Brevis motus Cantilenae”. The latter may be found scattered throughout the work, and also acts as a concluding theme. Stravinski’s love of Venice, an affection that drove him to direct his heirs to bury him in the cemetery at Lido, dedicated the Canticum Sacrum to this city, hence its incorporation in my own work. Dedicated equally to Marie Décary, Edgar Varèse and Alain Cazes, this music is intended as a celebration of sound, married to a “contemporary” discourse directed towards the sublime monument that is Renaissance music.
Walter Boudreau
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Thursday, September 8, 2011. Development & maintenance: DIM.