DORMITIO: LA CHACANA / LOS PASOS PERDIDOS
Meditation and dreams, rituals and dance. The artists of the La Chacana duo – Pierre Hamon and Ananda Brandão – take us on a journey to the rhythms of wood and leather instruments and in the sonic universe of flutes from ancient civilisations: medieval double instruments derived directly from the flutes and auloi of Greek and Roman antiquity; three-hole flutes and drums of medieval minstrels, and double and triple flutes of ancient Mexican civilisations. They have survived in the traditions of France and Spain, but also among the indigenous peoples of the Americas, from Mexico to Peru: flutes made of bone, pottery, cane, bamboo or wood, hollow (the “love flute” of the Indians of North American plains) or turned (European recorders), whose function, as the artists declare, is to “seduce the living and communicate with spirits”…
The musicians also quote Frans Brüggen (so fond of provocations!): “Be first and foremost an animal of breath.” This programme allows us to look at the primal power of music created precisely by the breath and the ancient rhythm, which can lead both to trance and meditation and towards joy and sharing a moment of musical understanding.
The programme Los pasos perdidos, performed in the late-night Dormitio section, includes, alongside European 13th- and 14th-century pieces and South and North American traditional melodies, also Hymne au vent (Hymn to the Wind) improvised on a copy of a prehistoric vulture bone flute dating to 20,000 years BC found in Isturitz in the Basque country, and Hymne au ciel (Hymn to the Sky) presented in the form of a ritual dance to music improvised on a pan flute made from condor feathers.
The event will be concluded with improvisations on various instruments of pre-Columbian civilisation, including relics of ancient cultures from the current Gulf of Mexico: the small Aztec flute, ocarinas and the triple snake-shaped flute, as well as ceramic instruments: quena Chincha (a simple panpipe of the Chincha culture) from present-day Peru and the antara Nazca, a type of panpipe associated with the Nazca culture, or whistling vessels of the Vicús culture.
Performers:
La Chacana:
Pierre Hamon – wind instruments
Ananda Brandão – percussion instruments
Programme:
LOS PASOS PERDIDOS
Hymne au vent improvised prelude for a prehistoric vulture-bone flute (a copy of a 22,000-year-old instrument found in Isturitz, Basque Country)
Hymne au ciel improvisation in the form of a ritual dance, played on a panpipe made of condor feathers
Guiraut Riquier (ca. 1230 – ca. 1295) Creire m’en fach (frestel – mediaeval pan flute)
Lucente stella (anonymous, Italy, 14th c.)
Sexte estampie royale (anonymous, France, 14th c.)
Chominciamento di gioia (anonymous, Italy, 14th c., recorder)
Belicha (anonymous, Italy, 14th c., recorder and drum)
Guillaume de Machaut (ca. 1300–1377) Tel rit au main complainte from the epic poem Remède de Fortune (mediaeval recorder)
Guillaume de Machaut (ca. 1300–1377 ) Se ma dame m’a guerpi (voice and mediaeval traverso flute)
Lai du Chèvrefeuille (anonymous, France, 13th c., flute and percussion instruments)
Ritual 1 / Omaggio Kogui improvisations based on melodic and rhythmic ritual motives of the Wiwa and Kogi peoples (kuisi, Colombia)
Aa, Sumak Kancakchaska traditional anthem to the Sun, written down in the end of the 19th c. in Huanaco, Peru (sicu – traditional Andean panpipe)
El Baile del Inca traditional, written down in 1954 in Copacabana, Peru, by Luis Guirault
Oraison pour la Terre Mère traditional Bolivian sikuri
***
The Butterfly Song (nipmuc – traditional Algonquin flute)
Lakota Lullaby (voice and drum)
Improvisations for instruments of the pre-Columbian cultures of the South America (Aztec little flute, ocarinas from the area of the Gulf of Mexico, quena Chincha – ceramic flute of the Chincha people, Peru, Mexican triple flute)
Improvisations for antara Nazca – the Nazca culture ceramic panpipe
Improvisations for the Vicús culture whistling vessels from Peru
Organizers
