Ombre

“Ombre” is an adaptation of the short story of the same title by Edgar Allan Poe which I composed for flute, viola, harp and piano. It was commissioned by the Concert Society of the City of Bulle, Switzerland. The instrumentation is inspired by Debussy’s sonata for flute, viola and harp. In my composition, I add to this already unusual constellation of instruments a part for piano. To the best of my knowledge, there are no other, or almost no other, pieces of music written for this combination of instruments. I have taken great care to create a convincing fusion of the sounds of the harp and the piano, instruments that I find difficult to combine. I have thus given priority to mixing resonances rather than attacks, as if the strings and soundboard of the harp have been grafted on to those of the piano.

The overall tone of the piece is dark, reproducing the suffocating and frightening atmosphere of Poe’s short story. Two pieces, however, “Le scintillement des étoiles de mauvais augure”, which accentuates very strongly the scintillating sound of the piano-harp combination, and “La Chanson d’Anacréon”, which evokes an old drinking song with a limping rhythm, light up somewhat the sombre character of the ensemble.

Extracts “Ombre”