Art as ritual/Ritual as Art

In 1998, I participated in the project that composer Antoine Tisné considered to be the most direct expression of his musical thought : « Music for Sacred Spaces » organised by the EKT in Erfurt, Germany with Françoise Lévechin-Gangloff, organ. This project, based on a idea of Jean-Thierry Boisseau was a series of three concerts during three days at which the same program of works for Saxophone and Organ was programmed in three different churches (two Protestant Churches and one Catholic Church). The audience followed the performers and the composer in a candle-lit procession through the streets of Erfurt between the Churches

The series of 3 x 3 concerts were completed by a tenth « private » event : the « pilgrimage » to the concentration camp in Buchenwald outside of Weimar by the composer and the performers. Tisné considered this project to have a symbolic meaning outside of the actual concerts themselves and spoke of the event as being a « ritual cleansing for all of the events surrounding the Second World War and the Communist period ». The works involved in this project include « Psalmodies for Saxophone and Organ », « Alta Mira » for Organ, and the works « Monodie I, II et V pour un Espace Sacré ». The last work will be performed again in Saint Roch in Paris on February 12, 2012 with works by Brenet and Boisseau, among others.

The idea behind this concert was the notion of a hidden ritual, which Tisné explained to me had great symbolism for him This notion of art as ritual/ritual of art is a central part of my work as a composer and performer. This concept will be developed in the next few months.