Creation

November 2nd 2013

Concert of the Orchestre symphonique de l’Estuaire (OSE)
Conductor : Luc Chaput
Soloist : Frédéric Demers, trumpets
Where : Salle Desjardins – Telus, 25, rue St-Germain Ouest, Rimouski

Program

Beethoven  –  Overture Egmont op. 84
Babin  –  L’Indécis for natural trumpet, piccolo trumpet, flugelhorn, slide trumpet, trumpet and cornet, one soloist and orchestra (world premiere)
Schumann  –  Symphony no 1 in B flat Major op. 38
Alban/Levy/Clarke/Babin  –  Carnaval de Venise à Rimouski

Program notes

“The Trumpeter has all the symptoms of multiple-personality disorder. It’s a known phenomenon affecting most trumpeters: he plays different instruments and each one highlights a separate aspect of his personality and sensibility. But he does not know who he really is. So he decides to consult a psychologist!

Arriving at the psychologist’s office, he hesitates… But he is determined to follow through in his quest and wants to be clear in his own mind. He screws up his courage, takes a deep breath. Leaving a few of his instruments outside, he knocks on the door and goes in.

After the usual formalities, we get to the heart of the matter. Urged on by the psychologist, the Trumpeter cannot stop pouring out his feelings. The manner in which the musician sets out his situation clearly shows the different personalities alive within him. Now suave, now martial… forever vulnerable on the emotional level, our Trumpeter unleashes the full range of his emotion and his artistic vision in which a constant intermingling of varied feelings clash, each battling to be heard above the chaos of ‘identity’. This musician is in distress. The psychologist reflects for a few moments, then suggests that the Trumpeter dig deeper into his memories – perhaps the source of his conflict lies there. To help him, the therapist proposes hypnosis. The Trumpeter replies, ‘Why not?’ … And so begins a strange voyage into the mysterious world of the trumpet family.

At the sound of the hypnotherapist’s sonorous monotone, the Trumpeter’s body lets go. He is not conscious of leaving the real world, but his entire being relaxes…He’s floating, there’s no sense of time, his vision is foggy, he hears the song of the Sirens. And suddenly the sky opens before him. It’s as if the universe is offering itself to him without restriction: there are no limits, nothing is forbidden or taboo.

In a club. Is that jazz? Maybe… Is that an obsessive rhythm? It surely is.

Ideas start to spill over. Besieged from all directions, the Trumpeter searches for his voice. A dialogue begins. An echo seems to be answering him… And still there’s this rhythm like a snake gliding along his fingers. When he finally understands his role, he escapes…

But we slowly find him again, and we surround him, encircling him. He cries for help but his voice is drowned out in the increasingly impenetrable tumult. He shouts. He struggles with himself.  He…

At the moment when it seems he’s out of his depth, he retreats even further to where it’s most beautiful – deep inside the hypnotic trance.

Reality no longer has a hold.

This new transition transports the Trumpeter into a cold and painful world. He feels  sadness mixing with a softness. Where is it pointing him? He feels a bitter-sweet memory, a feeling both cruel and intoxicating. He fears it and he desires it. He recognizes this feeling, a feeling of rediscovering love.

And so the Trumpeter recalls radiant days. He speaks to her. She replies. It’s a dialogue that has not grown old, which has not changed one iota. It was a time of projects, great plans for the future… Now it’s all only a memory.

His heart still swelling with this love that flows from his entire being, out of every pore, the Trumpeter glides gracefully deeper still, into the abyss, in the direction of his soul and the essence of who he is.

In this new place, all is illuminated. The Trumpeter finds himself in a familiar universe. He’s in close contact with his origins, he experiences a music manifest in cosmic colours, a music that is simultaneously light yet deeply meaningful. A renewed energy arises. The Trumpeter feels he has finally arrived at the source, a place where he rediscovers his essential virtues. This realization comforts him as he is confronts his choices. He knows that now he can finally leave behind the indecisive lassitude that’s been holding him down.

He understands that it is in his nature to bring all these worlds to life, equally, side by side. He accepts the multiplicity of his instruments, their separate characters, the range of their diversity. He knows that each of his trumpets is a real aspect of himself, and they all define him. And so the Trumpeter is freed from his chains.

He is happy. And when a trumpeter is happy, the world feels better too!”

© Copyright Louis Babin 2013