Cmaj7 | Claude Vivier - Prologue pour un Marco Polo (1981) @Cmaj7 | Uploaded July 2023 | Updated October 2024, 18 hours ago.
Formed around the harmonic series of the double bass's low E, "Prologue pour un Marco Polo" presents an intoxicatingly captivating sonic landscape.
00:00 Discovery of the word Zipangu (Japan). [Exploration of the harmonic spectrum of the E. (The harmonic 7th/9th chords at 1:36 are so hauntingly beautiful.)]
02:09 Grand chorale and speech of the Sage who has partly understood Polo but is also indifferent.
05:19 Call of Zipangu. Sadness, a land that glimpsed but never attained. [Furtive, jagged melodies around the bass's desperate cries]
06:35 Grand chorale, which from a state of anarchy [violent contrapuntal dynamic swells] returns to a perfect homophony, all of this leading to the Magician’s solo at 09:17. The structure is again untangled.
10:05 A last appeal from Zipangu. [A gorgeous sorrowful Emaj7 as the bass climbs longingly up the harmonic series of E]
10:46 An almost barbarian introduction to 11:59 Solo on the solitude of Marco Polo, superimposed on the amorous supplication of the four voices.
12:46 Slowly the music embroils all this [clarinets and strings descend into wild aleatoric runs] and becomes the state of grace of solitary visionaries.
15:16 Clear and vertiginous visions of the shades of death and obliteration of the being. [Another gorgeous Emaj7 chord, before the haunting tolling of bells]
16:12 Marco Polo today, a conversation, but most importantly some fruits: he is not dead. [A glorious chorale]
17:37 The testament of Marco Polo, a long solo always higher, the voice of God, almost the voice of madness. [Soprano solo over eerie swelling chords]
Score available from Boosey and Hawkes: boosey.com/cr/music/Claude-Vivier-Prologue-pour-un-Marco-Polo/47759
A melancholy view of Marco Polo’s tragedy and above all, a meditation on a state of being, that of seeker who is misunderstood: "Prologue pour un Marco Polo" is all of this. A prologue to this mysterious Marco Polo says more about his inner life than about his voyages (...) Through the musical writing, it also becomes a language that guide us toward another: an invented language, which is really that on the general incomprehension against which poor Marco had to struggle (...) As for the musical work, there is a slow development of a monodic moment toward an intervalized moment which then is harmonized, adding harmonic spectra to the intervalized structure which is also illuminated by harmonic spectra.
—Claude Vivier
Composer: Claude Vivier (April 14, 1948 – March 7, 1983)
Ensemble: Asko-Schönberg Ensemble conducted by Reinbert de Leeuw
How I make my videos: github.com/CMajSeven/WorkflowTemplate
Program I develop for this channel: github.com/edwardx999/ScoreProcessor
Formed around the harmonic series of the double bass's low E, "Prologue pour un Marco Polo" presents an intoxicatingly captivating sonic landscape.
00:00 Discovery of the word Zipangu (Japan). [Exploration of the harmonic spectrum of the E. (The harmonic 7th/9th chords at 1:36 are so hauntingly beautiful.)]
02:09 Grand chorale and speech of the Sage who has partly understood Polo but is also indifferent.
05:19 Call of Zipangu. Sadness, a land that glimpsed but never attained. [Furtive, jagged melodies around the bass's desperate cries]
06:35 Grand chorale, which from a state of anarchy [violent contrapuntal dynamic swells] returns to a perfect homophony, all of this leading to the Magician’s solo at 09:17. The structure is again untangled.
10:05 A last appeal from Zipangu. [A gorgeous sorrowful Emaj7 as the bass climbs longingly up the harmonic series of E]
10:46 An almost barbarian introduction to 11:59 Solo on the solitude of Marco Polo, superimposed on the amorous supplication of the four voices.
12:46 Slowly the music embroils all this [clarinets and strings descend into wild aleatoric runs] and becomes the state of grace of solitary visionaries.
15:16 Clear and vertiginous visions of the shades of death and obliteration of the being. [Another gorgeous Emaj7 chord, before the haunting tolling of bells]
16:12 Marco Polo today, a conversation, but most importantly some fruits: he is not dead. [A glorious chorale]
17:37 The testament of Marco Polo, a long solo always higher, the voice of God, almost the voice of madness. [Soprano solo over eerie swelling chords]
Score available from Boosey and Hawkes: boosey.com/cr/music/Claude-Vivier-Prologue-pour-un-Marco-Polo/47759
A melancholy view of Marco Polo’s tragedy and above all, a meditation on a state of being, that of seeker who is misunderstood: "Prologue pour un Marco Polo" is all of this. A prologue to this mysterious Marco Polo says more about his inner life than about his voyages (...) Through the musical writing, it also becomes a language that guide us toward another: an invented language, which is really that on the general incomprehension against which poor Marco had to struggle (...) As for the musical work, there is a slow development of a monodic moment toward an intervalized moment which then is harmonized, adding harmonic spectra to the intervalized structure which is also illuminated by harmonic spectra.
—Claude Vivier
Composer: Claude Vivier (April 14, 1948 – March 7, 1983)
Ensemble: Asko-Schönberg Ensemble conducted by Reinbert de Leeuw
How I make my videos: github.com/CMajSeven/WorkflowTemplate
Program I develop for this channel: github.com/edwardx999/ScoreProcessor
