A musical and choreographic show to celebrate the 100th anniversary of john cage. choreography of the grandville
In 1983 and 1984, John Cage (1912-1992) composed five pieces bearing the identical title of Ryoanji (as well as a large number of gravi-res and drawings), named after a Zen Buddhist temple in Kyoto (Ryōan-Ji), famous for its enigmatic stone garden. These five pieces – successively for voice, double bass, oboe, trombone and flute – were written according to the same principle: a succession of several gardens each represented by two pages on which the composer laid stones serving as guide for the pencil thus drawing rough curves.
These curves, in the form of ever-renewed glissandi, are forced into specific tesses that can be very reduced forcing the instrumentalists to feel and control tiny variations of heights. Of course, both the position of the stones and the tessitures were drawn at random according to the complex I-Ching method that John Cage used from the 1950s until the end of his life.
For each Ryoanji, pre-recorded parts by the performers are broadcast on three distinct acoustic speakers making each score a quartet of the same instrument, with only one playing live.
Another particular feature of Ryoanji is that the five pieces, independent of each other, are accompanied by the same percussion score. This score, representing, according to the composer, the razed gravel of the Zen garden, is composed only of identical beats which take on a regular but not cyclic pulsation, each beat taking the form of a chord of at least two sounds from instruments of different families. As if the light would change imperceptibly on them, each of these chords carry slight slides of dynamics.
«How can we describe the changes that occur in us when we play Ryoanji? And can we use the word play to describe the fact of sharing this moment of listening so singular where what offers to hear is in the interstices of sound, as between the stones of the score? And what's between every percussion beat? Would it be this immobility that would not be part of the movement or the journey? And what is this order of distances – this rhythm before the rhythm – from which so many transient states are developed, so many intermediate steps without the slightest start and the least finish?» (Lê Quan Ninh)
Production association Ryoanji and Caroline Spirale
Coproductions : Arcadi, Théâtre de Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, Scène Nationale, Centre Culturel André Malraux, Scène Nationale de Vandœuvre-Lès-Nancy, Ville de Limoges – Centres Culturels Municipaux – Scène Conventionnée pour la Danse, Atelier de Paris et CDC Paris Réseau (Atelier de Paris-Carolyn Carlson, L'étoile du nord, micadanses-ADDP, studio Le Regard du Cygne-AMD XXe)
With the support of Spedidam and ADAMI.
Dancers: Franck Beaubois, Audrey Gaisan Doncel, Blandine Minot, Annabelle Pulcini, Manuel Vallade
Photo © Sylvain Thomas
With Hubertus Biermann/Clement Plet, Géraldine Keller, Lê Quan Ninh, Thierry Madiot/James Fulkerson, Hélène Mourot, Laurent Sassi, Angelika Sheridan