Contemporary music is often thought to be the product of intellectual speculation, a constant praise of complexity. This is not entirely untrue. But to reduce all of today's musical creation to such statements is to ignore the work of François-Bernard Mâche, for example. Invited by Grame to take part in the biennial Musiques en Scène, this sixty-seven-year-old composer and musicologist draws all his inspiration from non-European traditions, reviving certain primitive aspects of music. François-Bernard Mâche's search for universals, i.e. everything that different cultures and eras have in common, has given rise to a personal language based on models and archetypes. In essence, he could be compared to the composer Stockhausen, who was also attracted by the idea of universal music. The form is totally different. Mâche lays bare ethnic sounds and rhythms, transforming and breaking them down to create a boldly coherent whole. This is by no means mere plagiarism. As he himself says, "What is perhaps most interesting about the phenomenon of folklore is its ability to reinvent itself and reincarnate itself in new forms". His music is therefore made up of multiple hybrids, reflecting the cultural cross-fertilisation of contemporary civilisations. The concert given by the Percussions Claviers de Lyon on Sunday 17 March at Les Subsistances was perhaps the easiest way to understand this approach. The four works presented (Hiérogamie, Phénix, Figures, Khnoum), all written for percussion (sometimes accompanied by a wind instrument), offered a global and faithful vision of the composer's resources: research into timbres, integration of Hindu rhythms, dilation of time, 'transposition' of mythological or sacred themes. It has to be said that the performance by the Percussions Claviers de Lyon, accompanied by a number of students from the CNSMD, made a major contribution to the effectiveness of this portrait concert.

                                                 S.S-A.  Lyon, March 2002