Aperçu partitionNotice
A short work for two pianos composed in 1987 for the Ravel Year, based on the combination of two different tempi, one for each pianist. The title is borrowed from astronomy, and refers to the star Gamma of Aries, which is close to the vernal point, the origin of celestial coordinates. Its name is a linguistic enigma: it seems dual, Arabic and Hebrew. But is it the sign (= the vernal point) “al sharat”? Or perhaps its association with Sheratan, the neighboring star, makes it a pair of ministers, i.e. servants (meshartim in Hebrew) of Hamal, the first star of Aries? The Mesarthim star is itself double, but this is an illusion of perspective: the first component is 148 light-years away, and the other 172. Each explanation raises more questions than it answers, and that’s just as well.
I was pleased to have found a title that could be read as both Arabic and Hebrew. Unfortunately, the Palestinian conflict is far from resolved, and linguistic proximity generally exasperates antagonisms more than it soothes them. Perhaps I would have done better to find a title related to Ravel, since this was the year dedicated to his memory.
Repeated notes in two fairly close simultaneous tempi (quarter note at 176 and quarter note at 184) are difficult for performers to achieve, even with the help of luminous metronomes. They are drawn to each other. This writing perhaps symbolically illustrates the ambiguous situation of the enemy brothers. I’m only becoming aware of it now, but it was already sketched out in Toïn theoïn, Areg and above all Autonomie, all works in which the antagonistic gemellity is expressed in two temporalities that are difficult to coordinate.
A brief, distant allusion to the blues in Ravel’s sonata for violin and piano is the only detail that recalls the circumstances of that composition, and points to the origin of the chanted ostinati.
Instrumentation
2 pianosFirst performance
Le Blanc-Mesnil, Conservatoire, Martine Joste & Sylvaine Billier
Publisher
DurandCommissioned by
Dedicated to
Records
Mâche / Ohana – Music For Pianos
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