Instrumentation: Viola & electronics (audio playback) – LMP67
Duration ca. 9 minutes.
Instrumentation: Cello & electronics (audio playback) – LMP69
This work was commissioned by the Pierre Boulez Saal in Berlin, and was premiered there on December 13, 2024, with Michael Barenboim on viola, and Gilbert Nouno on electronics.
Program Notes:
This work was commissioned by the Pierre Boulez Saal in Berlin, and was premiered there on December 13, 2024, with Michael Barenboim on viola, and Gilbert Nouno on electronics.
Several months before this premiere, Michael Barenboim was preparing a concert to commemorate the one hundredth anniversary of the birth of Pierre Boulez, which would feature a performance of the composer’s exceedingly difficult and groundbreaking work, Anthèmes II for violin and electronics. Barenboim was looking for other works to add to this program when he asked me to, “write something for the children of Gaza.” I had known Michael since 2014 when I traveled with the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, who were touring with a new orchestral work of mine. In 2018, I composed my Violin Concerto No. 1 for Michael, who then premiered it at the Boulez Saal in March of 2019, and has since performed it with the Rotterdam Philharmonic, and most recently in January 2025 with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra. In recent years, and since the outbreak of the war in Gaza, Michael has become an indefatigable human rights advocate using his platform to give voice to the voiceless.
So, when he asked me to write this work I thought of laments of the past and, for some reason, Ravel’s Pavane pour une infante défunte came to mind. This is where the inspiration for the title of my work comes from. Ravel was being humorous in his choice of title because his work contains no Pavane (an old Spanish dance form), and was not written in memory of any specific ‘princess’ (infante). My work uses this title only because it is familiar. It is a ruse, of sorts. The French word infante (princess) in Ravel’s title has been replaced by enfants (children) in my title. The word défunt (deceased) has been replaced by the plural form, défunts. It was said that Ravel was inspired in his choice of title by Eric Satie, whose titles were notoriously ‘absurdist.’ This may be one way to describe the cruelty of this conflict and the lack of empathy towards the most helpless of all, the children, who suffer the most. While Michael’s request alluded to one specific conflict, I dedicate this work to all children traumatized by conflict and displacement due to conflict, all through the stupidity of adults.
Pavane (pour les enfants défunts) is cast in a two part structure. The first part is based on an opening gesture:
This gesture develops and builds towards a frenetic mid-point, both in the viola and the electronics, after which a sort of calm pervades. The final section uses the rhythm of Ravel’s faux ‘Pavane’. In my work it is heard on a slightly detuned and processed ‘piano’ patch, while the viola weeps above with a descending chromatic and microtonal figure. This passage is marked, con espressione di patimento (with mournful or plaintive expression).
© 2005 Kareem Roustom www.kr-music.com