Dominique de Williencourt
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Dominique de Williencourt is a French cellist-composer, born in Lille (North France) in 1959.
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Abraham and Isaac, opus 7 For baritone, flute and string orchestra Frank Ferrari, Jean Ferrandis, Chamber Orchestra of Saint Christopher of Vilnius, Conducted by Donatas Katkus Dedicated to Frank Ferrari, Jean Ferrandis and Donatas Katkus
In Abraham and Isaac [3], a baritone chants Psalm 40 as well as Genesis 18, 12-15, in which Sarah, who learns that she is going to have a child in her old age, starts to laugh. Isaac translates literally as “he will laugh”. The spirit which links father and son could be compared to a woman, or a protective mother, as described in Genesis “And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters”.
I tried to understand the difference between Hagar, a “complete”, woman, who bore all within her and who would give Abraham his first son, and Sarah, Abraham’s infertile wife, a woman “made whole” who would beget a child thanks to divine intervention. Hagar would give birth to Ishmael, ancestor of the Ishmaelite and the Arabs in the Mohammedan tradition and Sarah would give birth to Isaac, creating the lineage of the Jewish people and its offshoot – the Christian tradition.
These are the two sacrifices of Abraham, the first sending Hagar and Ishmael into the desert (Does not Islam through its root salama mean ‘to be saved by abandonment’?), the second stretching forth his hand to slay Isaac and sacrificing him to God.
To translate this feminine sensitivity from God into music, I used a thought of Lacan’s for the chorus: God is a woman made whole, a vision of Jean-Paul I: God is our mother and a phrase from Daniel Ange: God is a man who loves like a woman. DW
First performed in the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, Paris, 6 February 2007 with Franck Ferrari – baritone, Jean Ferrandis – flute, The Chamber Orchestra of Saint Christopher of Vilnius, conducted by Donatas Katkus.
Etchmiadzin and Mount Ararat, Opus 3 For cello Dominique de Williencourt Dedicated to Guillemette
My journey as a cellist has allowed me to meet forgotten peoples in remote corners of the globe. I have played for the Touaregs in southern Algeria, Tibetans in the foothills of the Himalayas and Armenians on the banks of Lake Sevan. Through the cello I wanted to recreate these fleeting impressions and stamps soaked in nostalgia.
The piece Echmiadzin and Mount Ararat, is based on Armenian themes. I have endeavoured to pay homage to these people who have been tested by history using melodies I heard in the Christian abbey of Echmiadzin, in the shadow of the famed Mount Ararat, where Noah’s Ark is thought to have landed. The lowest string has been tuned down to an A to reproduce the double sound of the doudouk. DW
Commissioned by Rencontres Musicales in Lorraine, first performed on 22 July, 1998.
Edgédé, The singing dune, opus 4 For flute Jean Ferrandis Dedicated to Jean Ferrandis
My numerous journeys in these far off, desert lands compelled me to listen to silence in all its guises. I heard vibrations created by the elements as imposing as huge sandstone castles, formed over millions of years and invaded by the sand, taking shape with notes. They give birth to music, even to light. Seven notes like the seven colours of the rainbow.
In my search for the breath of life – the flute is the instrument that most closely resembles the breeze and the wind. A breeze that blows between the mountain ranges of the Hoggar and the Erg Admer. Wind that makes the dunes sing. Edgédé means ‘dune’ in Touareg.
First performed at Théâtre Marigny, Paris, November 2002.
Dharamsala, the Mountain of Spices, opus 2
For cello octet Conducted by Marcel Bardon Dedicated to Marcel Bardon
Through the initiative of Colette Bernard, president of the Society Les Amis du Violoncelle [Friends of the Cello] and Sabine Marçais I was invited to be composer in residence at Dharamsala in India, where the Dalai Lama lives in exile. My stay began at Tibetan New Year (in February 1998) and I had the opportunity of participating in many different ceremonies in the purest Tibetan Buddhist tradition that brought the old year to a close and heralded a better life in the year ahead.
I dedicated this piece to the cellist Marcel Bardon, a very talented teacher who taught me not only to play the cello, but also to listen to others.
It is also in homage to all those Tibetans who were treated in the hospital in Dharamsala which bears the inscription TSV: Torture Survivor Victims.
It is these colours, this fervour and compassion which I have attempted to recreate in this piece. By using the sonorous power of a cello ensemble, I endeavoured to imitate the conch shells and the chants of the young bonzes whose spiritual intensity is still etched in my memory, as well as the cymbals and percussion instruments which punctuated the monks’ prayers.
DW
First performed in the Eglise Notre Dame (Church of Our Lady) Paris, by 200 cellos, in December 1999.
Song of Solomon 8 -13, 14
Thou that dwellest in the gardens, the companions hearken to thy voice: cause me to hear it. Make haste, my beloved, and be thou like to a roe or to a young hart upon the mountains of spices.
Beer-sheba, opus 5 For cello and string orchestra Dominique de Williencourt Chamber Orchestra of Saint Christopher of Vilnius, under the direction of Donatas Katkus Dedicated to Pierre, Capucine and Grégoire
Near Moriah, the Mount of the Offering
Beer-sheba is the first part of a triptych on the sacrifice of Abraham which I wrote to describe the relationship between a father and son: Beer-sheba [1], Isaac’s Poem [2]*, Abraham and Isaac [3].
Beer-sheba is the place where Abraham lived when he set out to sacrifice Isaac at the bidding of Jehovah. How can a father accept to kill his son, and how can a son understand it? I used the cello to represent the voice of Abraham. DW
Commissioned by the Chamber Orchestra of Vilnius to celebrate Lithuania’s accession to the European Union.
- for flute, viola, cello and string orchestra. Commissioned by the Institut de France, in 2005.
Genesis, 22 – 16 and 19
…By myself have I sworn, saith the Lord, because thou hast done this thing, and has not withheld they son, thine only son: That in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; …Abraham returned unto his young men…and dwelt at Beer-sheba.
Le Fou de Yalta for soprano and piano - Edition Salamandre
