Ophiucus by Thérèse Brenet for mandolin, viola, celtic harp and guitar

Thérèse Brenet's work for mandolin, viola, celtic harp and guitar Ophiucus has just been publisehd by Musik Fabrik

This title, which refers to a giant planet discovered by astronomer Donald McCarthy of the University of Arizona, expresses Thérèse Brenet’s favorite image of the infinity of Time and Space. Planet V. P.8B is 21 light-years away from Earth ; such a distance along suffices to encourage one to reflection.

This cosmic reverie is emphasised by a fragment of Nietzsche’s poem Nocturne, the recitation of which may be inserted by the instrumentalists over the playing of the music.

“Innumerable suns gravitate in deserted space; they speak through their light to all in the darkness. But I live in my own light. I drink the flames which shoot forth from me”

The reverie is also expressed by the absence of a conclusion, characteristic of the work. Thérsèe Brenet has deliberately omitted the double bar which traditionally closes a musical piece ; the work is not brought to a conclusion - it still resonates while fading away in an endless perdendosi suggesting the idea that we would find these fugitive harmonies in the cosmos, if we could pursue the speed of sound...

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L'&Oelig;uvr de Thérèse Brenet pour mandoline, alto, harpe celtique et guitar, Ophiucus vient d'être éditée par Musik Fabrik

Ce titre qui rappelle la découverte par l’astronome Donald McCarthy (University of Arizona) d’une planète géante dans la constellation d’Ophiucus, traduit l’image du prédilection que Thérèse Brenet se fait de l’infini du temps et de l’espace. La planète V.P. 8B est à 21 années-lumière de la Terre ; et ce seul effet de distanciation peut suffire à nous faire rêver. .

Cette rêverie cosmique se trouve ici soulignée par le fragment d’un poème de Nietsche, Nocturne, dont la récitation par les instrumentistes peut être inéérée sur la musique.

“D’innombrables soleils gravitent dans l’esapce désert ; ils parlent par leur lumière à tout ce qui est sombre [...]. Mais je vis dans ma propre lumière, je bois les flammes qui jaillissent de moi...”

Elle est exprimée aussi par l’absence de conclusion qui caractérise lœuvre et c’est volontairement que Thérèse Brenet n’a pas mis la double barre qui clôt traditionnellement une pièce musicale : lœuvre n’est pas achevée, elle résonne encore en s’éloignant dans un perdendosi sans fin, suggérant l’idée que, si nous pouvions les poursuivre à la vitesse du son, nous retrouverions en quelque point du cosmos ces fugitives harmonies..

New Double concerto by Thérèse Brenet

Thérèse Brenet's Ces Hautes Mélodies dans le Paradis que Nous avons perdus : double concerto for viola, violoncello and orchestra (222bscl2/4331/tymp/3perc/hp/cel/strings) has just been published The work is in three moveements : I La première union avec Dieu 3'45"
II Glissée de comètes 4'
III Le Livre de l'Éternité 5'55". A set of score and solo parts are available for sale. The parts are available in our rental catalog.

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L'œuvre de Thérèse Brenet Ces Hautes Mélodies dans le Paradis que Nous avons perdus : double concerto pour alto, violoncelle et orchestre (222clbs2/4331/timb/3perc/hp/cel/cordes) vient d'être publiée L'œuvre est dans trois mouvements : I La première union avec Dieu 3'45"
II Glissée de comètes 4'
III Le Livre de l'Éternité 5'55". Un jeu de partition et parties solistes est en vente. Le matériel est dans notre catalogue location.

The publication of two new works for the piano by Thérèse Brenet

Two works for solo piano by the French composer Thérèse Brenet havec just been published by Musik Fabrik : Avec des éclats dorés d'espérance and Trois Préludes pour piano. Both of these works were written for the American pianist Raj Bhimani, who has performed both of these works extensively since they were written and who helped finalize these publications. His interpretation of these works will be featured in a forthcoming CD of Thérèse Brenet's chamber music.

The Trois Préludes have been described by the composer as being "Sometimes sparkling, adventurous or brillant, sometimes more light, these harmonies are full of tragic vibrations and soft lights...to underline the sensitivity and temperament of the pianist".

The title of Avec des éclats dorés d'espérancew is an excerpt of a very beautiful and moving letter which the poet Pierre-Jean JOUVE wrote to Thérèse BRENET on the occasion of the première of another work "Résurection des morts". Without taking a position on technique or language, this work is not connected to any academic musical
tradition of the past nor of the present. Both works are available in our piano music catalog.

Nicolas Horvath performs Le Chant d'un monde Lointain, the second of the Trois Préludes

Recent and upcoming concerts involving works published by Musik Fabrik for October

October 3, 2010: Solomons: Japanese première of Tants Fraylach for Clarinet Quartet, The Iris Clarinet Quartet, The Concert Hall at the Electricity Museum (Denki-Bunka-Kaikan) Nagoya, Japan

October 8, 2010: Brenet: World première of Concerto pour violoncelle et petite orchestre
MUSICARAMA 2010, Artem Konstantinov, Violoncello, the City Chamber Orchestra of Hong Kong under the direction of Jean Thorel,
Kwai Tsing Theatre Auditorium, Hong Kong

October 10, 2010: Maeda: Japanese Folksongs and Haikus for women's chorus, Ensemble Vocale Akané, 17h00, Paroisse Sainte Rosalie, (For more information, please click here.)

October 12, 2010: Tailleferre: Finnish Première of Guitare, Otto Tolonen, Guitarist, 19H00 at the Sibelius-Akatemia, konserttisali
Pohjoinen Rautatiekatu 00100 Helsinki, Finland (For more information, please click here.)

Thérèse Brenet's new work for Concert Band : (5523) Luminet 1991 PH8

Musik Fabrik has just published Thérèse Brenet's work for Concert Band, entitled (5523) Luminet 1991 PH8 and named after the main belt asteroid
discovered in 2003 and named after the French Astrophysicist Jean-Pierre Luminet.


This work was premièred on April 27, 2003 at the Eglise Saint-Roch in Paris with the prestigious Orchestre de la Musique de L’Armée de L’Air, under the direction of my friend and colleague, Claude Picheraureau.

From the composer's notes for this work :

"I have always been fascinated by the beauty of the Cosmos, which has inspired many of my works.
Feelings of infinite movement can be expressed musically and it seemed to me that one of the ways to do this was to end this work on a repeated phrase played in a long perdendosi, to give the impression that one is hearing the echoes of the finished phrase as the instruments stop playing.

I had just started to write this work when I received a note for the Paris Observatory which gave me the news that the astronomical community had decided to name a newly discovered asteroid for Jean-Pierre Luminet.
When I wrote to Jean-Pierre to congratulate him on this honour, reminding him with the Petit Prince that not everyone has their own star, I asked him if he would accept that I name this work for concert band with the full name of his asteroid: 5523 Luminet 1991 PH8.
Jean-Pierre accepted my proposition by return letter : “..., not only do I not have any objection, but I would be very honoured. To be in the celestial spheres in the form of a rock and also in the form of music, what more could one ask for?"

Both the score and the set of score and parts are available for sale from our Concert Band Music Catalog.

De Rerum Natura for narrator and Orchestra by Thérèse Brenet

Musik Fabrik has just published Thérèse Brenet's De Rerum Natura for Orchestra (2(pic)222/4330/Timp/2perc/hp/pn/strings)with narrator The work is in five movements and lasts eleven minutes. From the composer's notes for the work :

De Rerum Natura a was inspired by a passage by Lucretius, a long and ample phrase, which is divided into five sequences to illustrate the five movements of this piece for orchestra.

I. When, looking upwards, we meditate on the celestial spaces of this vast World et the fixed stars which shine in the ether and when our thoughts are drawn to the paths of the Moon and the Sun...
II. ...then, an anguish which had been hidden in our heart by other worries, is awoken...
III. ...Would there not, just in front of us, the gods who with an infinite power cause the varied movement of the white stars? Given up to doubt by the ignorance of causes, the spirit wonders if there was a beginning, a birth of the World.
IV. ...if there must be en end, and when the ramparts of the World must accept the weariness of this troublesome movement...
V. ...or rather if, given an eternal existence by the gods, they may continue their paths in the infinity of Time and thus defy the effort of the immense duration.
(Lucrce, De rerum natura. V. 1204-1216)

The work begins with three trumpets whose melodies, which sometimes use quarter-tones, make an oblique reference to the purity of Gregorian chant which rises and falls and seems to represent the poet’s invitation to turn our eyes towards the sky.

Then an aleatoric sequence is superimposed on the trumpets et while this unorganised passage could shock, it seemed that this technique evoked perfectly the movements of the stars, the complex network of paths of the different solar sphères. Against this aleatoric background, the trumpets appear two more times, which reminds of the poet’s thoughts and his emotion on contemplating the infinite.

In the second movement, which avoids all notion of development, Thérèse Brenet sought an extreme concision, which seeks to create a dramatic tension and the sense of the poet’s anguish. The massed strings and winds seem to attract and repulse with a great violence. Each effort, each crescendo gives a sense of collision and collapse of the musical materail in an eternal violent rocking .

In the score of the third piece, the author gave the following indication for the strings : "Consider that the written pitches are approximate and avoid as much as possible the impression of a diatonic system One should try to mimic the inflictions of the spoken or screamed voice, playing with the heavy and rough character that one can obtain with the double-stops ».
Superimposed on this rough and acid sound in the strings, are dry, accented chords in the brass. The two elements are progressively brought to a crescendo which is not completely realized.

The fourth movement , which is very dark in character, is made up of a single chord in the strings which is repeated in order to take on a full texture. The oboes attempt to announce a theme which cannot be quite distinguished out of the dense string texture. The condensed, static and meditative nature creates a feeling of suspension which prepares the last movement.

The fifth movement uses a rocking motif in which the massed brass and strings, each with its own incompatible rhythm, seems to crash together and to each impose its proper movement in an eternal process. The idea of eternity is central to this work. Ordinarily, works have an ending. This one does not, as a symbolic means of expressing this eternal movement by the author. The final bar is omitted from the score and the last few measure are combined in a repeated sequence which can be played without end, with a diminuendo in which one will never completely realise the final limits.,

In this same movement, the expression sempre crescendo is used a number of times. Of course, there comes a moment in which it is no longer possible, except for perhaps the percussion instruments, to play louder, but one can give the illusion of a crescendo by the obsessive repetition, the growing tension et the oppressive character without having to increase the true amount of decibles. In this manner, the instruments will be able to go to the limits of their possibilities and then maintain this level, so that one will have the impression at each measure that the orchestra is playing as loudly as possible and that the next measure will create the illusion that it is indeed louder.

In this work, the composer wanted to establish a parallel between Lucretius‘ revolutionary ideas about the Latin language and her own work in building her individual musical language. Apart from Lucretius’ poetic breath and expression, Lucretius tries to resolve what he perceives as the poor quality of his native language - patrii sermonais egestas - especially compared to the rich vocabulary of Greek by trying to create new words and new combinations of words. He uses a system in which different non-grammatically correct ordering of words are used to create new ideas or images. This process may be compared to the musical idea of separating certain sounds which may naturally attract. While this notion is completely natural in a tonal system, it is perhaps less apparent when used in an atonal texture.

"That which perhaps characterises best the poetry of Lecretius is the admirable sensation of the Infinite which he evokes many times with weight...He is never as great as when he brings us into the mysterious regions outside of all limits when he breaks down the « walls of the world » and in the shining of a pure light, contemplates from afar both our miserable World and also the Infinite Space of the Cosmos.".
Henri Clouard. Lucrèce De la Nature des Choses, introduction, p. 10.

The score is available for sale in our score catalog. The orchestral parts are on rental.

Performances this week of works by Brenet, Cooman and Freidlin

Works by three Musik Fabrik composers will be performed this week around the World.

On Sunday, January 10th, 2010 at 3:00 P.M. Mezzo-soprano Katherine Ciesinski and pianist Raj Birmani will present the World Première of Thérèse Brenet's Perles d'ambre in the version for female voice and piano. The concert is at the Tenri Cultural Institute New York, New York, USA, at 3:00 PM (more information at www.leschetizky.org ) The concert also features works by Fauré, Duparc, Roussel, Ravel, Hoiby and Hundley with Peter Van Derick, baritone.

After the world première of Carson Cooman's Piano Quartet on the 9th by the Arcturus Chamber Ensemble (Sarah Darling, artistic director) at Carlisle, MA USA, the program will be repeated on Sunday, January 10th at the Pusey Room, Memorial Church of Harvard University, One Harvard Yard, Cambridge, MA USA at 4:00 PM.

On Friday, January 15th, Cooman's song cycle on poetry of Katherine Gekker Chasing the Moon Down will be premièred by Gail Collins, mezzo-soprano, Chris Gekker, trumpet, Stephen Brown, piano, at the Friday Morning Music Club Series, Washington, D.C.

Again, on Friday, January 15th, Jan Freidlin's work for solo violin, MonoOpera will be performed by Gennady Gurevich, Violin at at Beit Ticho ( Jerusalem), Israel at 11:00 A.M.

Congratulations to all of the composers and performers!

Thérèse Brenet's work for Serpent and Piano just published

Thérèse Brenet's work for Serpent and Piano De bronze et de lumière has just been published by Musik Fabrik.

The work is dedicated to Michel Godard, the Serpent professor at the Paris Conservatory and also to Douglas Yeo, who performed the work's premiere on July 19, 2009 at Connecticut College in the United States.

Brenet describes the work as follows :

Why this title? I was fascinated, when I met Michel Godard, by the different facets of the Serpent.

Why bronze? Because the lights reflects on this noble alloy in which silver was mixed by some ancient artists. I was impressed by the dark and almost tragic color that the magnificent instrument is able to transpose, for example, in the trills, and this explains why the serpent plays a trill, on two occasions, in the full range of dynamics from ppp tooo. The piano punctuates briefly these two trills by an incisive and hard-hitting intervention : the light her represents lightening which precedes the rumbling of the storm. But in what follow, I wanted a more gentle texture. The serpent can be very expressive.

At the end of the piece, one can find the bronze of the serpent and the light, which has become very soft, in the piano. The serpent’s part fades away, descending to the lowest register while the piano rises progressively and softly towards the light, reaching higher and higher registers.

Therefore, I hope that I was able to bring out the many different facets of this instrument

The work is available from our brass music catalog.

Photos from the première of Thérèse Brenet's violin concerto in Hong Kong

Here are some photos from the World Première of Seul tes yeux demeurèrent...concerto for violin and orchestra by Thérèse Brenet, with Ho Hong-ying, violin, The City Chamber Orchestra of Hong Kong, under the direction of Jean Thorel.

Two World premières of works by Thérèse Brenet

Two works by Thérèse Brenet will be premièred in the next few days.

Miss Brenet's Concerto for Violin and Orchestra "Seul tes yeux demeurèrent..." will be premièred at the Musicarama Festival in Hong Kong at the Tsuen Wan Town Hall Auditorium,
Hong Kong, China on October 24, 2009 by Ho Hong-ying, violin, The , City
Chamber Orchestra of Hong Kong, under the direction of Jean
Thorel, a long-time champion of Brenet's music.

This concerto was inspired by the poem by Edgar Allan Poe, To Helen (1848), a memory of an ephemeral object of love

I saw thee once- once only- years ago:

whose intensity and cosmic references have rendered un forgettable:

All- all expired save thee- save less than thou:
Save only the divine light in thine eyes-
Save but the soul in thine uplifted eyes.
I saw but them- they were the world to me!
I saw but them- saw only them for hours,
Saw only them until the moon went down.


The work is divided classically into three movements :

I. The pearly lustre of the moon went out:
II. Only thine eyes remained. They fill my soul with beauty.
III. How fathomless a capacity for love!

Then, on October 30, 2009: Brenet's Des roses de Paestum à la rose des vents
de Dougga for guitar will be premièred by Marco del Greco, Guitar, “Eviva la Chitarra”
organised by Donne
in Musica at the Scuderie Aldobrandini, Frascati, Italy. The work will then be performed several more times in Rome during the month of November.

This four minute work for guitar solo was inspired by the juxtoposition of images of the famous Rose Gardens in Paestum Italy and the "Rose des vents" in Dougga, Tunisia, which suggested an interplay of perfumes and winds across the Mediterranean Sea. The work was written specially for this series of concerts in celebration of Donne in Musica's Jamila project, involving women in music around the Méditerranean bassin countries.

More information about these works is available on Miss Brenet's page on our site, as well as in our guitar music catalog and our string music catalog.

New work for solo guitar by Thérèse Brenet: Des Roses de Paestum à la rose des vents de Goubba

Musik Fabrik has just published a new work by Thérèse Brenet for solo guitar : Des Roses de Paestum à la rose des vents de Goubba. This work, written for the Adkins-Chiti Donne In Musica foundation in Rome, will be premièred during the month of October in a series of concerts dedicated to the foundations "Jamila" project, which explores music by women composers written on both sides of the Mediterranean sea.

The work is available in our guitar music catalog.

Two new vocal works by Thérèse Brenet

Two new works for voice and piano (both of which also exist for voice and orchestra) by Thérèse Brenet have just been published by Musik Fabrik: Poème de Jade for Baritone Voice, Flute and Piano and Perles d'Ambre for female voice and piano.

Poème de Jade is a setting of seven Chinese poems which are taken from "La Flûte de Jade", a series of French translations of Chinese poems by Franz Toussaint. The voice part is intertwined with the flute part in a very expressive manner. The seven poems deal with images of love, of desire and ultimately with the role of the composer in Society. The work lasts for 17 minutes. The orchestral version is scored for 4 percussion, harp, harpsichord, piano and strings (44221)

Perles d'ambre is a wordless vocalize for female voice (low a to high b) and piano. The work is intended to be (in the words of the composer) "liberty, sensitivity and all of the expression of Music which breathes...in the infinite spirals of Love and Beaufy, above Space and Time.". The work lasts aproximately seven minutes. The orchestration is for 2 percussion, harp, harpischord and strings.

Both works are available in our vocal music catalog.

Raj Bhimani to perform the music of Thérèse Brenet Sunday, April 19th in Paris

Pianist Raj Bhimani will perform the French première of Thérèse Brenet's "Trois Preludes" pour piano on Sunday, April 19 at 16h00 at the American church in Paris. The programme (which is listed below) will also feature works by Brahms, Roussel and Poulenc. The American church is located at 65, quai d’Orsay, 75007 Paris and admission is free (a collection is taken to help support the series).

Raj Bhimani is an active performer, teacher, and adjudicator. He has presented solo and chamber music recitals in the United States, France, Italy, Portugal, Canada, and India, and can be heard regularly in and around New York. Performances of his have been broadcast on Indian National Radio and Television, Portuguese National Radio, and also on WQXR and WHUS Radio in the United States. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Pomona College in California, and a Master of Music degree from the Peabody Conservatory in Maryland. He had the good fortune to study in Paris for three years with noted French pianist Nicole Henriot-Schweitzer, and in New York has had a long association with Seymour Bernstein. He also values the assistance he has received from Claude Frank and Andre Laplante. Mr. Bhimani teaches in the Music School of the 92nd Street Y in New York and also maintains large private teaching studios in Bronxville, New York, and in Manhattan. He has also taught at New York University and in the Music Preparatory Department of Concordia College, and gives lectures and workshops on piano pedagogy, the performance of French piano music, and other topics.



Trois Intermezzi, Opus 117 - Johannes Brahms

Variations et Fugue sur un thème de Handel -

Johannes Brahms

Trois Préludes pour piano - Thérèse Brenet

Nocturnes - Francis Poulenc

Trois Pièces pour piano, Opus 49 - Albert Roussel


à l’Eglise Américaine

65, quai d’Orsay, 75007 Paris


Entrée Libre – Libre Participation

Thérèse Brenet's "Le Fascinateur with poetry by Jean-Pierre Luminet

Thérèse Brenet has written many works inspired by the Cosmos and Space. Her most recently published work is a trio with narrator which uses the poetry of astrophysicist Jean-Pierre Luminet. From the composer's notes:

Le Fascinateur is scored for narrator, celtic harp, piano and percussion.

The texts are taken from a poem by the astrophysicist Jean-Pierre Luminet. Nous nous étions plu, in Griphes, followed by Topiques, (Gérard Oberlé, Manoir de Pron, Nivernais, 1989).

The juxtaposition suggests in epigram a quotation from Gaston Bachelard, which could apply to the musical score with an equal pertinence, since the music is, for Thérèse Brenet, the echo of the Cosmos

“All of the words which are called to greatness by a poet are the keys to the universe, to the double universe of the cosmos and of the depths of the human soul.”

The work is available on the composer's page at our website. It will be recorded in a few months under the musical direction of Jean Thorel.

Thérèse Brenet's Concerto for Violin and Orchestra, "Seul tes yeux demeurèrent..."

Thérèse Brenet's Concerto for Violin and orchestra Seul tes yeux demeurèrent..., which is inspired by Edgar Alan Poe's poem "To Helen", has recently been published and is available in our string music catalog.

The 14 minute work is scored for Tympani, 2 percussion, Vibraphone, harp, celesta, and strings (similar to "Des Graines de sable d'or aux mains: Concerto pour guitare"), which was also inspired by Poe's poetry.

The work will be recorded this year by French conductor Jean Thorel, long associated with the music of Thérèse Brenet, with a soloist and orchestra TBA

The complete text of "To Helen", which inspired the work :

I saw thee once- once only- years ago:
I must not say how many- but not many.
It was a July midnight; and from out
A full-orbed moon, that, like thine own soul, soaring,
Sought a precipitate pathway up through heaven,
There fell a silvery-silken veil of light,
With quietude, and sultriness, and slumber,
Upon the upturned faces of a thousand
Roses that grew in an enchanted garden,
Where no wind dared to stir, unless on tiptoe-
Fell on the upturn'd faces of these roses
That gave out, in return for the love-light,
Their odorous souls in an ecstatic death-
Fell on the upturn'd faces of these roses
That smiled and died in this parterre, enchanted
By thee, and by the poetry of thy presence.

Clad all in white, upon a violet bank
I saw thee half reclining; while the moon
Fell on the upturn'd faces of the roses,
And on thine own, upturn'd- alas, in sorrow!

Was it not Fate, that, on this July midnight-
Was it not Fate, (whose name is also Sorrow,)
That bade me pause before that garden-gate,
To breathe the incense of those slumbering roses?
No footstep stirred: the hated world an slept,
Save only thee and me. (Oh, Heaven!- oh, God!
How my heart beats in coupling those two words!)
Save only thee and me. I paused- I looked-
And in an instant all things disappeared.
(Ah, bear in mind this garden was enchanted!)

The pearly lustre of the moon went out:
The mossy banks and the meandering paths,
The happy flowers and the repining trees,
Were seen no more: the very roses' odors
Died in the arms of the adoring airs.
All- all expired save thee- save less than thou:
Save only the divine light in thine eyes-
Save but the soul in thine uplifted eyes.
I saw but them- they were the world to me!
I saw but them- saw only them for hours,
Saw only them until the moon went down.
What wild heart-histories seemed to he enwritten
Upon those crystalline, celestial spheres!
How dark a woe, yet how sublime a hope!
How silently serene a sea of pride!
How daring an ambition; yet how deep-
How fathomless a capacity for love!

But now, at length, dear Dian sank from sight,
Into a western couch of thunder-cloud;
And thou, a ghost, amid the entombing trees
Didst glide away. Only thine eyes remained;
They would not go- they never yet have gone;
Lighting my lonely pathway home that night,
They have not left me (as my hopes have) since;
They follow me- they lead me through the years.
They are my ministers- yet I their slave.
Their office is to illumine and enkindle-
My duty, to be saved by their bright light,
And purified in their electric fire,
And sanctified in their elysian fire.
They fill my soul with Beauty (which is Hope),
And are far up in Heaven- the stars I kneel to
In the sad, silent watches of my night;
While even in the meridian glare of day
I see them still- two sweetly scintillant
Venuses, unextinguished by the sun!

Musik Fabrik's project in honor of Claude Lévi-Strauss' 100th birthday

Today is Claude Lévi-Strauss' 100th birthday. Seven Musik Fabrik composers have each written a short piece in honor of the great French Anthropologist which will be published together in the same album. The seven pieces are :

Thérèse Brenet: Dans l'or vibrant du désert... for violin and piano

Gloria Coates: Elegy for flute and piano

Jean-Thierry Boisseau: Sur le bord du fleuve assoupi for flute and marimba

Gian Paolo Chiti: Nocturnal for piano, left hand

Carson Cooman: Un Regard Eloigné for Flugelhorn and Violoncello

Jean-Yves Malmasson: Points de Suspension for Clarinet and Violoncello

Paul Wehage: Savage Thoughts for Tenor Saxophone and Harp

Jean-Thierry Boisseau, who was behind the organization of this project, describes it as follows :

During my participation in the Cahier de L’Herne dedicated to the work of Claude Lévi-Strauss (on the request of Michel Izard), I had the chance to explore the work of this great thinker. He honored me greatly by thanking me for my article which corrected some misunderstandings concerning his ideas about music and also for exposing the poetic qualities of his work...It seemed clear to me that, not being a poet, I should use musical means to honor this great man who could easily have been a musician himself.

Claude Lévi-Strauss is celebrating his 100th birthday. I asked several of my friends who are also composers to mark this occasion by writing a short piece. Since Lévi-Strauss is one of the most open spirits which I have been privileged to consider, it was understood that these pieces would also be completely free in both instrumentation and form. Six different composers of different ages and nationalities agreed to write works.

Thérèse Brenet; First Grand Prix de Rome; Gloria Coates; the noted American doyen of German composers; Gian Paolo Chiti, ancien vice-directeur of the Academia Santa Cecilia de Rome and pianist; Carson P. Cooman; organist and graduate of Harvard University; Jean-Yves Malmasson; First prize of the CNSM de Paris, pianist, ondist and conductor; Paul Wehage; First prize of the CNSM de Paris, saxophonist and conductor: these six musicians are, in addition to their many musical talents, first-rate composers. I wrote the seventh work myself.

This is a celebration of Lévi-Strauss outside of all official commemorations and with no preoccupations towards the media. Rather, this is an imitate way of thanking an important thinker who has given us new ideas, stimulated our own reflection and has given us much pleasure.

Jean-Thierry BOISSEAU.

Thérèse Brenet's "Des Graines de Sable d'or aux Mains", Concerto for Guitar and Orchestra in Paris tomorrow

For anyone in Paris, there is a performance of Thérèse Brenet's Concerto for Guitar and Orchestra on Wednesday, October 15, 2008 at the Townhall annex of the 14th arrondissement: The guitar soloist is Gérard ABITON, with the Stringendo ensemble under the direction of Jean Thorel.

Thérèse Brenet's work is inspired by Edgar Alan Poe's poem "A Dream within a Dream" and its more "cosmic" significations :

I stand amid the roar
Of a surf-tormented shore,
And I hold within my hand
Grains of the golden sand-
How few! yet how they creep
Through my fingers to the deep,
While I weep- while I weep!
O God! can I not grasp
Them with a tighter clasp?

Me 15 X 2008 / 20h30 / Doors open at 20H00 precisely

Annexe of the Townhall of the XIV° Arr (5 minutes from metro/RER : Denfert-Rochereau or Mouton Duvernet)

Rue Durouchoux / 75014

VIVALDI: C° Guitare en ré

VIVALDI : Motet « Invicti Bellate »

NEVIN : La Guitare (1896), 1° audition française

BRENET : C° Guitare (1988-2005), Création mondiale, dans la version définitive

LANGLAIS : Suite Bretonne

DJORDEVIC : « Upstream from Sorrow »

FRANCK: Psaume 150

VAUGHAN WILLIAMS : Fantasia on Christmas Carols



Soloists : Gérard ABITON, guitar / Sophie de TILLESSE, mezzo

Ensemble Vocal du Chesnay / Silvio SEGANTINI

Ensemble Orchestral Stringendo / violon solo : Christophe Pïerre

Jean Thorel



Tickets : 18 et 13 euros

Thérèse Brenet, Prix de Rome in 1965, joins our roster of composers

Thérèse Brenet, the 1965 Winner of the Prix de Rome, a longtime professor at the Paris Conservatory of Music (where she taught several generations of talented musicians including Musik Fabrik's own Paul Wehage) and a widely recorded and performed French composer, is the latest addition to Musik Fabrik's growing roster of composers.

We have just published two works by Brenet for SATB Chorus, Organ and Orchestra. Ciels is a set to a mystical text by the symbolist poet Germain Nouveau and Rondel uses a text by the Romantic Poet Tristan Corbière.

Soon to follow will be two works inspired by the poetry of Edgar Allen Poe : Des Grains de Sable aux mains d'or for guitar and chamber orchestra and Seul tes yeux demeurent... for Violin and Chamber orchestra.