On Sunday, at 7 p.m., just after the Classical Spree, the Forestare collective and the Nouvel Ensemble Moderne (NEM) will meet at the Auditorium of the Grande Bibliothèque as part of the Festival international Présenceautochtone for a concert entitled Somewhere and other places.
This meeting is inevitably intriguing. “From orality to written music; from gesture to sound; from movement to musical line; it is a question here of discovering the other, of opening up to each person’s sensitivities and of sharing this richness,” the Festival tells us. And it is indeed about discovery that it is a question.
There is an obvious chasm between so-called scholarly written music, especially “sharp” contemporary music, if one can say so, and oral transmission, “especially musically”, remarks Lorraine Vaillancourt, who is delighted with the confluence. “We are a bit locked in our culture, that’s why I was very happy to work with speech. For me, it’s the gateway: Indigenous poetry and literature are very rich,” argues the founder and musical director of the Nouvel Ensemble Moderne (NEM).
The speech lag
The work that will be created by the head of the NEM, Uieshby Tim Brady, is composed for voice and 14 instruments, based on poems in Innu aimun by the poet Joséphine Bacon taken from the collection Uiesh – Somewhere published by Mémoire d’encrier in 2018. “Seven poems are linked together without a break. Tim Brady faced a particular problem. When he read the poems and listened to Josephine Bacon, it didn’t match; it didn’t work by ear! He therefore phonetically transcribed Joséphine’s poetry into the score, in the way she recites it,” says Lorraine Vaillancourt.
“When we started working, we found a person who teaches Innu‐aimun at the University of Montreal. She came to rehearsals and made sure we understood what the singer was saying. Our singer, moreover, is Innu, but Innu-aimun is a foreign language for her too. We did an exploratory workshop with Josephine. The corrections were minimal. His poetry is concise, beautiful. » French and English translations will be screened during the concert.
We are a bit locked in our culture, that’s why I was very happy to work with the spoken word. For me, it’s the gateway: Aboriginal poetry and literature are very rich.
Uiesh will also include the opening concert of the NEM, on October 25, at Bourgie Hall, associated with the creation of Facing the Music by Simon Bertrand on poems by Paul Auster. “An event around speech, a project that has been underway for several years, to which we will add an excerpt from a quartet by Valentin Silvestrov, since we will be dedicating our season to the victims of the war in Ukraine”, says the founder of the NEM.
On Sunday, at the Grande Bibliothèque, as part of the Festival international Présence autochtones, Uiesh will be preceded by two works for guitars with the Forestare ensemble. First there will be excerpts fromArauco; por fuerte, principal y poderosa… (2006), by the Chilean Javier Farías.
This work for flamenco guitar, classical guitar, ensemble of classical guitars, double bass and narration is inspired by The Araucana (1569, 1578, 1589), Spanish epic poem by Alonso de Ercilla y Zuniga, translated into French by Alexandre Éthier.
The latter is the composer of the creation Song(s) for ensemble of classical guitars, double bass and narration on poems by Andrée Lévesque Sioui.
Soprano Deantha Edmunds, narrator Andrée Lévesque Sioui, classical guitarist Adam Cicchillitti and flamenco guitarist Philippe Jean will be the soloists for this concert.