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BONNARD, Alain (France)
BONNARD, Alain (France)
My friend Alain Bonnard composed the Élégie amoureuse dans le style des anciens in an early music style for me and the celebrated French harpist, Marielle Nordmann. The composition was occasioned by a series of concerts we were performing with our usual duo of "small harp and guitar or lute".
The blend of plucked string instruments (harp and guitar, harpsichord and guitar) creates a rich tone-colour and a burst of harmonics which eludes the inventive range of each instrument heard separately.
The title is in itself evocative of a sweet tenderness and a deliberately archaistic style. Most of the phrases end with a silence on the third beat, avoiding any explicit bridge with the next phrase: the poetic resonance around this "scored silence" supplies the link.
The romantic dialogue between the two instruments is symbolized by the almost permanent 2 for 3 pattern. Tonal ambiguity is a constant, but the modal structure always wins out. What ambiguity love implies, even if it is just between two instruments!
Not the least of the work's attractions is its firmly concerted character: the two instruments dialogue as equals without one ever lording it over the other. As in an ideal love affair, each listens to the other and answers with sweet tenderness.
The Élégie amoureuse dans le style des anciens written in an early music style can also be played on large harp and harpsichord: there will be a change in colour, but the burst of tone-colour will be just as intriguing. Nor is there any reason why a pianist with a delicate touch should not be allowed to place his fingers on this piece.
François Castet
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