Sanaalijal
for solo flute (flute in C and Alt Flute) and ensemble of thirteen instruments (2006)
The starting point of this composition was a personalreaction to an inglorious event that occurred in December 2005 in our country,international though its vocation may be: the expulsion of a Mongol journalistand her young child. Considered persona non grata in her own country for havingdenounced the corruption there and the violations of individual rights offreedom, Hanà Tserensodnom was forcibly repatriated, insidiously so via theNetherlands, the Minister of the Interior thus avoiding any confrontation withthe media, despite wide spread mobilisation of journalists. Far from being somesort of metaphorical description, the music was intended to exploit its work of‘memory’ – Sanaalijal in the Mongolian language – something that, to be sure,does not mean that reference to Mongolia is absent. On the contrary, thisdistant Orient is evident right throughout the piece owing to the presence of threetypes of materials: a traditional pentatonic song whistled in its originalform; a modelisation of the flute and voice simultaneously present in some folktraditions in the mountains; finally the celebrated Khöömi, a diphonic songthat has delighted so many Western composers. These three elements are nevertaken up literally, Sanaalijal in this way aiming at avoiding the trap of adiscourse based on a linking of musical anecdotes. On the contrary, theselatter are subjected to telescoping and operations of intense - even violent - sounddistortion in which the vertical component progressively gives rise to horizontalconcepts and vice versa. A process of double inversion, the fragmentary memoryof which activates our listening and creates an expressive direction that, deliberatelyvoid of any sort of tragic or expressionist intent, does not hesitate tobreathe out a scent of hope and optimism.
Sanaalijal was commissioned by the ensemble Musiques Nouvelles.The work is dedicated to Berten D’Hollander, a remarkable flautist for whomthis concerto was expressly composed.
The work took its premiere at the Festival Ars Musica 2006by Berten D’Hollander, solo flute, and the Ensemble Musiques Nouvellesconducted by Jean Thorel.
"Sanaalijal" is recorded on CD by the performers of the premiere - Label Cypres / "Claude Ledoux : D'Orients".