Our

For choir and instrumental ensemble, Our (Jerusalem) is in search of the place of the individual in the collective space, questions the fear of the Other, perceived as individual (source of exclusion), or as representative of a group (source of a blind violence, mimetic) … The work does not seek an answer, its material is made of questions, let itself be crossed by the energy of the sacred and despair …

In April 2006, Kees Vlaardingerbroek, Artistic Director of the “ZaterdagMatinee Concert Series” of the Concertgebouw of Amsterdam proposed to Zad Moultaka to write a work whose only constraints would be its general theme – Jerusalem (the three monotheisms, their conjugation in a reconciliation utopian) -, its duration (around 40 minutes), its staff (a chorus between 30 and 75 singers and an instrumental ensemble). The subject was vast, painful, difficult.

So difficult that the composer has decided to be a mere witness. By choosing to rely on texts that denounce the blind violence and the cruelty of the facts. Without comment, without explanation, without guilt. This work proposes a reflection on the intrinsic impossibility of freeing ourselves from our chains: identity, cultural and mental. It highlights the violence and confinement that sometimes underlie the great founding texts of civilizations, which open up great spiritual and philosophical perspectives, but also, through the literal interpretations that can be made of them, sect the violence and hatred, incomprehension of the other.
Textual work is a sort of mise en abîme of some of these words that have been operating in us for millennia and thus, a mise en abyme of our inner worlds. It is based on a great poem by Etel Adnan, the Arabic Apocalypse, written in English, which seeks, through a vertiginous pile of images, the appeasement in the void.

The work does not give an answer, its subject is made of questions. It operates a distant, indirect lighting. Melodies seem to return from time immemorial, at least archaic, or from childhood. The orchestration recreates, through a strange and familiar sound cloth, a primordial and virgin space.

… to lead to a great fragmentation of the vocal and instrumental ensemble, which allows in the same “time” to be grasped by the elusive of great form. Our pursues what has already been experimented in Nepsis (and in a certain way in Fanàriki), where this tension between the individual and the group is explored through the creation of micro sound spaces (micro intervals, intertwined rhythmic cells, lyrics , whispers …), emerging from a meditative silence, gradations, subtle forms of stratification

The composer chose to work on all the vocal possibilities of the Netherlands Radio Choir: the staff is divided into a large choir of 48 singers and a female choir. The orchestra consists of around twenty musicians from the Schönberg ensemble. The direction of the work has been entrusted to Simon Halsey.
title Our designates the city in Aramaic. Ourichlem, Jerusalem (Yiroushalayim, in Hebrew), means city of peace. In Arabic Al Quds means the Holy, to signify the holy city.

Set
1 mixed soprano / altos / tenor / bass choir by 12, 1 female sopranos / altos choir by 6, flute in ground, 1 oboe, 1 clarinet si b, 2 horns in F, 2 trumpets in si, 1 trombone tenor, 1 trombone bass, 1 tuba, 3 percussions, 2 violins, 2 violas, 2 cellos, 2 double bass with 5 strings

percussion I
3 tam-tams (large, medium, small), 3 metal plates, 1 gong in key of fa, 2 bells-tube in key of ground, 3 crotales in key of ground, 1 glockenspiele, 1 vibraphone, 1 xylophone, 1 bass drum, 5 toms (one bass), 1 snare drum 2 bows

percussion II
1 large tam-tam, 1 gong in key of fa, 4 gongs in clé de sol, 6 rattles in clé de sol, 1 glockenspiele, 4 wood-blocks of different height, 1 bass drum, 2 toms (grave and medium), 3 congas (conga, tumba and quinto), 2 bongos, 1 req or failing one tambourine, 1 bow, 1 hard-headed catapult, 1 rubber ball 1 saucepan

percussion III :
1 medium tam-tam, 11 gongs in key of fa, 2 gong in clé de sol, 3 bells in key of ground, 3 hanging cymbals large, medium, small, 1 steel-drum serious, 1 marimba, 1 vibraphone, 4 wood-blocks of different heights, 1 bass drum, 2 serious and acute timpani, 1 req or failing one tambourine, 1 metal chain, 1 hard-headed catapult, 1 saucepan

Extract