UM
60′ – 2016
for ensemble & voice
driving engine for all things
Impulse Award
Price by the best musical creation 2016-2017
by the professional association of Criticism
UM
UM is a sound meditation inspired by the Tibetan Book of the Dead and Buddhist rituals; she explores the notion of the sacred in our modern societies. Six singers, surrounded by instruments and speakers, weave links between the extremes of the sound spectrum, sub-bass and ultra-high. They seem to seek, through these strata, the place of the man. UM, in search of an interior space, then functions as a series of mantras, phonemes borrowed from our consumer society, which constitutes a sharp criticism, lamenting our lost relationship to the sacred.
“Buddhist monks dig into the depths of the vocal material to reveal what is most transparent, the high harmonics. They arise miraculously to remind us that the visible and the hidden, the material and the spiritual are side by side and are of the same nature. It is said that “God is the first motor, the driving force of all things”. And if we followed this adage to the letter? The engine … in the most mechanical sense … “(Zad Moultaka)
UM BY ZAD MOULTAKA
UM is a project that has its source in the energy and sound space of Tibetan rituals. This theme has been repeatedly explored and exploited, often for pseudo-spiritual or dangerously media purposes. Here it is not about the monks themselves, let alone about proselytism, apology or any political position towards the Tibetan tragedy, but rather about a look at our own declining civilization, meaningless and anchoring, questioning our relationship to the sacred, its sometimes pathetic diversion and a space in search of common resonances.
Arranged in layers, on three levels, a mixed ensemble at the back of the stage, another composed of brass and percussion, then in the center seven singers pronouncing broken words, “names”, syllables that sound like hollow mantras, coming from our greedy consumer society. Six men, located in the core of the sound device of the room, in search of connection between the top and the bottom, the sky and the earth, the extreme space of the harmonics and the sub-bass. Loudspeakers suspended above the audience embody this ultimate space of the treble; others scattered on the ground open the grave. Buddhist monks dig into the depths of the vocal material to reveal what is most transparent, the high harmonics.
They arise miraculously to remind us that the visible and the hidden, the material and the spiritual are side by side and are of the same nature. Follow an infinite line that turns out to be a circle, take an interior path that blends into space. And if we could go down even lower?
Digging even further? Go beyond the grave, more serious than the grave, so that the singing of the monks becomes itself the treble of an undisclosed underground vibration. What would this matter be? What face would these highs beyond treble? Could the computer machine show us the way? One direction ? The machine … Beautiful paradox that would be played in IRCAM laboratories. “The motor produces or transmits a physiological movement”. It is also a “device for transforming energy into mechanical energy”, a force that gives movement. It is said that “God is the first motor, the driving force of all things”. And if we follow this adage to the letter? The engine … in the most mechanical sense … UM, this mantra-sounding syllable would also hide, cynically, the acronym for United Motors? Tibetan monks have been used for car advertising!
The engine would therefore be to our societies what the Buddhist song is to theirs. Then question the sound material of the engine with the model of the singing of the monks? Could these infra-serious and the super-highs of the engine make our way? A poetic space? Dare the word: spiritual? All this to remind us, once again, that the visible and the hidden, the material and the spiritual side are of the same nature? Does this mean that despite our “rise” to the extreme surface of things, we are not yet totally lost? That our salvation would reside in the listening?
Listening to the most innocuous things?
Listening …
For these monks who have spirituality for dwelling, the universe was created by a sound …
Premiere: 7 October 2016
Place: Jean-Vilar theater, Vitry-sur-Seine
By: Ars Nova instrumental ensemble & Neue Vocalsolisten from Stuttgart, direction Philippe Nahon
Gilbert Nouno, computer music production, Ircam
Co-commission of Ircam-Centre Pompidou, of Festival d’Ile de France & Ars Nova instrumental ensemble
Ars Nova co-production instrumental ensemble, Ircam-Center Pompidou, Ile de France Festival, TAP Auditorium Theater of Poitiers. With the support of the Franco-German Fund for Contemporary Music / Impuls neue Musik and Spedidam. With the help of the musical creation of the County Council of Val-de-Marne. In coproduction with the theater Jean-Vilar de Vitry-sur-Seine
for two sets & electronics
Six singers, eleven instrumentalists
Texts inspired by Bardo Thödol (Tibetan Book of the Dead)
set
6 votes: S / M / A / T / B / B, 1 flute, 1 clarinet, 1 horn, 1 trumpet, 2 trombones, 1 tuba, 2 trombones, 1 percussion, 1 viola, 1 cello, 1 double bass
percussion
3 suspended cymbals with bow / 1 Bass drum / 1 Tam-tam / 1 Steel-drum do# re mi fa# / 1 vibraphone / 2 Chinese cymbals / 4 crotales (or other high-pitched resonant metals) : mi sol fa# la
© ŠamaŠ éditions musicales 2016
8 November 2016
La Comédie, Scène Nationale de Clermont-Ferrand (63)
under the context of Festival des Musiques Démesurées
10 November 2016
La Filature, Scène Nationale de Mulhouse (68)
22 November 2016
TAP Théâtre Auditorium de Poitiers (86)
13 May 2017
Arsenal de Metz (57)
15 June 2017
Stuttgart Summer Festival (Germany)
Neue Vocalsolisten
Soprano Johanna Zimmer, Susanne Leitz-Lorey
Mezzo-soprano Truike van der Poel
Tenor Martin Nagy
Baritone Guillermo Anzorena
Andreas Fischer Bass
Ars Nova instrumental ensemble
Flute Pierre-Simon Chevry
Clarinet Eric Lamberger
Cor Patrice Petitdidier
Trumpet Fabrice Bourgerie
Trombones Patrice Hic and François Michels
Emilien Tuba Running
Isabelle Cornélis percussion
Alto Alain Tresallet
Cello Isabelle Veyrier
Double bass Tanguy Menez
Direction Philippe Nahon
Lights, video Jérôme Deschamps
Regie général, orchestra Erwan Le Métayer
Sound engineering Ircam Mélina Avenati
Ircam computer music production Gilbert Nouno
Janvier 2016
Olivier Delsalle interviews
director of the Ile de France Festival
and Zad Moultaka
in a studio of IRCAM
“I wanted to tell you that um haunts me. It goes back, it returns, like a heady ripple. It’s as if – beyond the work and the concert – you had implanted in my brain spiritual memories that are not mine, or that I carried in myself without knowing it. It’s very strong. Decidedly you sign there something beautifully powerful. MD
“I spent – like, I think, everyone in the room – an absolutely unforgettable moment, magical, beautiful. An initiation! A four trips. I am still excited about this moment. Sometimes, there are connections that are not explained. It is again one.
The first time I heard Calvario I was upset. Attacking the work to play it was a new shock.
In December, the work for guitar and cello confirmed my emotion. And last night: apotheosis, moment of grace. I do not know how to describe it, but it’s like I live your music completely. She speaks to me, I see her, I feel her, at the same time that I understand her. Thank you for this human experience or “on” human (in the sense of the vibration that exceeds the intellect, which raises us to … the Universe). ” Pierre Bibault
UM of Zad Moultaka created at the Jean-Vilar Theater in Vitry-sur-Seine
“… in the darkness where the richly iridescent electronic stream seems to echo the distant voices of a virtual choir. We are seized, for an hour, by the strangeness of this celebration sparing abrupt contrasts exploited by the lights of Jerome Deschamps … ”
Resmusica – Michel Tosi – Le 10/10/2016
Nothing is therefore harmless in this musical architecture whose flow is always moving and expanding. The quest and the questioning of which we are dealing with, and which will be discovered by the spectators of this event program, are at the height of the deafening and multiple barbarism which is now striking our door, at the risk of destroying our civilization. To the now ordinary violence that overwhelms us, Zad Moultaka asks the question that must make us react. Art and music for our salvation.
Classicnews.com
France Musique “Le concert du soir” retransmission 21 December 2016
Programmed by TAP
Poitiers
bible
Ile de France Festival
UM à la
Comédie de Clermont-Ferrand
UM
à la Filature de Mulhouse
April 4, 2016
