COMBATTIMENTO II
20′ – 2017
for ensemble & voice
Combattimento II
Taking over the Combattimento de Monteverdi the same instrumental device, the same text in the same language and the same duration, Zad Moultaka joins his own Combattimento to the Monteverdian work that Il Sorgere extends, an electroacoustic moment that will gradually plunge into the darkness, the night of the war, bringing Monteverdi’s play out of darkness and silence. Monteverdi wished it: “If fara entrara alla sprovista dalla parte de la Camera in cui si fara la Musica” (The Combat will arrive unexpectedly from the place where the instruments play). After introducing the characters and the beginning of the fight, the Testo (Reciting) invokes the Night: “Notte che nel deepo e oscuro seno / chiudeste, e nel oblio, fatto si grande / degno of a chiaro sol, degno of a pieno Teatro / opre sarian si memorande” (O Nuit, whose deep darkness has covered under the forget an act so illustrious! Worthy of the brightness of the sun, worthy of a vast theater, would be so memorable feats) in a song that uses all the resources of his art, before returning to the fight, simply, abruptly, “in imitating the passions of the story “. It is the Italian Tasse, polished by multitude of recitations, from generation to generation, stretched in a sublime dramatism by Monteverdi, which especially inspires the Lebanese composer. This musical language, which he particularly likes, haunts his sonorous imagination at least as much as the fury of the inter-religious struggle between the two protagonists. Singular resonances, rebounds from one era to another, antagonisms that only art can transgress, solve, sew and melt in the work …
The heartbreaking Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda is part of the eighth book of the Madrigali warrior ed amorosi, and relates the fight of Tancred, a valiant knight, against Clorinda, the beautiful Saracen of whom he is in love and whom he did not recognize under the armor she put on. Sounds and images – sword blows, rattling weapons – blood flowing in abundance … are reproduced by the instruments that play ad imitatione delle passioni dell’oratione, following the speech of the narrator and the poignant emotion created by his story. Tancred, after a fierce duel, pierces with his Clorinda sword. The latter, touched by grace, and in a final outpouring of love, asks her to be baptized for peace, or rather for the salvation of her soul – since the body can no longer be saved. The knight responds to his request, thus completing a last gesture of symbolic union. On this very current theme, around this remarkable work by its subject and its artistic approach, the concert addresses the issues of rapprochement and antagonism of cultures, harmony and war, love and adversity, the mask that hides us under the other.
harp, harpsichord, five strings
Text: Le Tasse, extract from Jerusalem delivered
Singing language: Italian
Premiere at Festival Musica in Strasbourg October 4, 2017
and at Arsenal de Metz October 5, 2017
Venue: Saint Aurelian Church, Festival Musica, Strasbourg
by Le Parlement de Musique and Mezwej
co-production Le Parlement de Musique / Musica / Arsenal / Mezwej Musica & Le Parlement de Musique – Martin Gester
© ŠamaŠ éditions musicales 2017
Le Parlement de Musique – Martin Gester
Francesca Sorteni, soprano
Fernando Guimaes, tenor
Jean Gabriel Saint-Martin, baryton
Gilone Gaubert, vl1
Florence Stroesser vl1
Sara Goméz, alto
Filipa Meneses, viole
Peter Pudil, violone
Marie Bournisien, harpe
Aline Zylberajch, clavecin
Zad Moultaka (direction)
Report of Geneviève Charras, October 5 2017
