Poem by Claude-Henry du Bord, extract from " the verb to live "

Editions Cahiers Bleus/Blue Library (ZurfluH●Editions)

Creation Radio France, Alla Breve, 11.1999 - Choir of Radio-France, direction, Michel Tranchant

Editions Francois Dhalmann

This work was born of my deep friendship with the poet and translator Claude-Henry du Bord, whose cultural horizon is close to mine.

This one likes to say of his poetic work :

"The verse is self-sufficient so that the set of verses ends up forming a poem".

This explains the care with which each verse is constructed as well as the precision with which each word is chosen.

The music prolongs this network of correspondence between the verses emphasizing the meanings hidden at the bottom of the words.

This poem is constructed in five parts, each having well-differentiated characteristics.

The entire poem goes “ from anguish to confidence, from darkness to clarity, from sadness to appeased joy ”

The musical form, also in five parts, amplifies the form of the poem by constantly folding in on itself, like the ebb and flow of the waves ; so :

• the 1st musical part corresponds to the 1st part of the poem

• the 2nd musical part to the 2nd part of the poem followed by the return of the 1st part.

• the 3rd musical part to the 3rd part of the poem

• the 4th musical part to the 4th part of the poem followed by the return of the 3rd part

• the 5th musical part to the 5th part of the poem.

The alternation of characters is then as follows:

I: dark – II: light/dark

III: light - IV: dark/light

V: clear

An additional dimension is inscribed in the work by the use of extreme registers. Their own tension opens the writing to an "instrumental" use of the voice where the sound color is more important than the meaning of the words.

Like poetic writing, the five parts are linked almost without interruption.