Instrumentation: sheng

Duration: 8 minutes

Year composed: 2024

Recording: Li-Chin Li

Program note: Les lèvres sont froides is inspired by a haiku written by the poet Matsuo Basho. This haiku emphasizes the importance of silence (Silence is golden) by implying that an inappropriate sentence spoken turns the lips cold. This emphasis on silence is the central element of the piece. Les lèvres sont froides explores a theme that is of great significance to me: the expansion of the concept of silence. Even though the “pure acoustic” silences are sparse in the piece, the concept of silence is suggested throughout different manifestations. Immobilism, suspended temporality, absence of register, and absence of timbres are some manifestations of these “expanded” silences developed in the piece. The expansion of silence is imbricated in a second layer of development, a harmonic one, articulated around polar pitches.

This piece was written for the SEED Academy 2024 and is warmly dedicated to Li-Chin Li.

When saying something,

The lips feel cold.

The Autumn wind.

Quand on dit quelque chose

les lèvres sont froides

― Vent d’automne

物いへば 唇寒し 秋の風

Matsuo Basho