RAMBARAMB

Notice

Rambaramb is a work for orchestra and magnetic tape commissioned by Radio-France in 1971 for the Philharmonic Orchestra and premiered on 8 May 1973 under Daniel Chabrun. It is part of a cycle of three pieces, along with Korwar and Temes Nevinbür, all based on the same assemblage of raw sounds recorded without manipulation, which function on magnetic tape as a kind of cantus firmus. In relation to these natural sounds, the instruments represent a kind of over-modelling, a little like the reliquaries found in Melanesia, where skulls are at the same time sculptures, with the addition of coloured pastes and various accessories. This is why the titles of these pieces are borrowed from that part of the world, without the sounds used or the musical structures coming from there. As in certain traditional cultures, there is no Western opposition between what is raw and what is elaborate, between nature and culture. Music is an extension of animal sounds, while human speech is itself just one of the many noises the world has to offer, allowing listeners to marvel without prejudice.