Text of a programme by Bernard Girard on Radio-Aligre on 10.9.07

Working with ancient languages can also give them the opportunity to seek out the music of a forgotten or lost language. François-Bernard Mâche has often done this, and to my knowledge he is the only composer to have linked musical writing to archaeological research, and in particular to the reconstruction of lost languages through the medium of music.
Khnoum, which we will now hear, like Scelsi's Hyxos, takes us back to the most ancient Egypt. "Khnum (the master of fresh water) is, and I quote the Wikipedia entry here, the god of the cataracts and creative power in Egyptian mythology. He controlled the flooding of the Nile by opening the Hapy cave in Elephantine, where the Flood was located. He played a major role in the daily lives of the Egyptians, saving the people from famine.
As the demiurge who shaped the egg of creation, in the mystery of the divine birth, he also shaped the child-king. Khnum moulds his creations on his potter's wheel with the silt from the Nile, to give them life and shape their Ka.
He is depicted as a man with the head of a ram, sometimes surmounted by a jug, holding the ankh in his hand.
Khnum was particularly worshipped in Elephantine and Esna. A temple was also dedicated to him on the island of Philae. He can be found in around ten Egyptian cities in various forms.
François-Bernard Mâche dedicated this work, written in 1990, to his daughter Danae, whom Zeus seduced with a shower of gold coins. One can imagine, and this is one of the strengths of mythology, that by giving this name to this work he wanted to wink and tell us all that his daughter has the determined, wilful, impulsive character of a ram. This is not, of course, what he says in his texts, where he insists on a sonic dimension, perhaps more relevant to the musician: "Her name sounds like a percussive onomatopoeia, and that's one of the reasons I chose it, in addition to a lifelong interest in all mythologies". It will come as no surprise, then, to hear a work for percussion and sampler. Here it is performed by the Percussions de Strasbourg.