Kyoko’s Dance
Version for soprano saxophone and piano (2010 - ca. 6 min.)
This short page was originally commissioned by the Greek Embassy in Paris and premiered (in its original version for violin and piano) at the Maison de Radio-France as an homage to Iannis Xenakis. This piece allowed me to bring in my mind some thoughts about the limits of the instrumental virtuosity, exciting topic that frequently came in my discussions with this great master whose classes I followed with great interest during the Eighties. In addition to the unbridled nature of the piece, Kyoko also refers to the eponymous novel by the Japanese author Ryu Murakami. Dance and death interleaves with brio and emotion. It is a strange mix between gray and bright saturated gestures with some perceptual paradoxes placing the listener between enthusiasm and querying, a sound metaphor of the emotions that overwhelmed me when reading this wonderful literature.
As said before, the piece was originally composed in 2005 for violin and piano. However, the timbre of soprano saxophone seemed to me more appropriate to express the strength of multiple arabesques of the partition. This second version, composed in 2010, was premiered by Simon Diricq (saxophone) and Flavien Casaccio (piano) at the Via Festival in Mons (Belgium) at March 31st, 2011.
Claude Ledoux
A video of the work, by its creators performing at the festival Emergence - Brussels - 2011, is available on YouTube at the following address:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3NWSa41sdlQ