Music
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Story
Lyrics
Cécile
Cécile
Comissioned by Eunghee Cho
Cécile, commissioned and dedicated to Eunghee Cho, is inspired by the novel Bonjour Tristesse (Hello Sadness) by Françoise Sagan. The story goes:
Cécile, a carefree teenager, has spent her childhood in boarding schools. She has been living with her father, Raymond, a widow who is in his forties. They lead an idyllic existence where Cécile enjoys great freedom while her father has many mistresses.One summer, Cécile, her father Raymond, and Elsa, his mistress, are on holiday on the Côte d'Azur, in Southern France. Anne, a friend of Raymond’s late wife and who Raymond’s has vaguely invited to the villa shows up. Anne, who is closer in Raymond’s age, is a sophisticated, educated women unlike Elsa. Quickly, Anne disrupts the peaceful life at the villa: she sleeps with Raymond, announces their engagement, which prompts Elsa’s leave.Cécile is not happy, as Anne criticizes her idle lifestyle and her lack of intellectual ambitions. Cécile derives a plan with her summer fling, Cyril, by convincing him and Elsa to show up together as a couple at strategic points during their stay so make her father jealous. Raymond, unable to resist this provocation, seeks Elsa. Anne surprises them by chance in the nearby woods. Desperately, she takes her car and drives off a cliff. Cécile and her father go back to their life, but Cécile is now feeling a new feeling: sadness.
“Only when I'm in my bed, at dawn, with only the noise of cars in Paris, my memory sometimes betrays me: the summer comes back with all my memories. Anne, Anne! I repeat this name in a low murmur and for a very long time in the dark. Something them comes up in me, that I welcome by name with my eyes closed: Hello Sadness.”
Though the musical form of the quartet doesn’t follow the form of the novel, the essence of the music is very much inspired by the story and the delicacy of Sagan’s writing (who wrote Bonjour Tristesse at 18!), and the poem by Paul Éluard which inspired the title of the novel.
- Bosba Panh (2018)
“À Peine Défigurée”
poem by Paul Éluard, from La vie immédiate, 1932
Adieu tristesse,
Bonjour tristesse.
Tu es inscrite dans les lignes du plafond.
Tu es inscrite dans les yeux que j’aime
Tu n’es pas tout à fait la misère,
Car les lèvres les plus pauvres te dénoncent
Par un sourire.
Bonjour tristesse.
Amour des corps aimables.
Puissance de l’amour
Dont l’amabilité surgit
Comme un monstre sans corps.
Tête désappointée.
Tristesse, beau visage.
•••
Farewell Sadness
Hello Sadness
You are inscribed in the lines on the ceiling
You are inscribed in the eyes that I love
You are not poverty absolutely
Since the poorest of lips denounce you
Ah with a smile
Bonjour Tristesse
Love of kind bodies
Power of love
From which kindness rises
Like a bodiless monster
Unattached head
Sadness beautiful face
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04:24
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Story
my love is building a building
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04:20
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Remember Me (2017)
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Sablonnières (2016 - harp suite)
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04:49
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Mad Girl Love Songs
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03:38
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The Christmas Tree
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Pieces of Time
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Pièces pour Mi
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They Say it's Spring (String Quartet)
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Lyrics
Vespers
Little Boy kneels at the foot of the bed,Droops on the little hands little gold head.
Hush! Hush! Whisper who dares!
Christopher Robin is saying his prayers.
God bless Mummy. I know that's right.
Wasn't it fun in the bath to-night?
The cold's so cold, and the hot's so hot.
Oh! God bless Daddy - I quite forgot.
If I open my fingers a little bit more,
I can see Nanny's dressing-gown on the door.
It's a beautiful blue, but it hasn't a hood.
Oh! God bless Nanny and make her good.
Mine has a hood, and I lie in bed,
And pull the hood right over my head,
And I shut my eyes, and I curl up small,
And nobody knows that I'm there at all.
Oh! Thank you, God, for a lovely day.
And what was the other I had to say?
I said "Bless Daddy," so what can it be?
Oh! Now I remember it. God bless Me.
Little Boy kneels at the foot of the bed,
Droops on the little hands little gold head.
Hush! Hush! Whisper who dares!
Christopher Robin is saying his prayers
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Story
Simple Times
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Story
Lyrics
Songs for the Rulers of the Universe
I. I shut my eyes
from “ Mad Girl’s Love Song” - Sylvia PlathI shut my eyes and all the world drops dead;
I lift my lids and all is born again.The stars go waltzing out in blue and red,
I dreamed that you bewitched me into bed
And sung me moon-struck, kissed me quite insane.I should have loved a thunderbird instead;
At least when spring comes they roar back again.
II. Seaside
from “ Pretty Halcyons Days” - Ogden NashHow pleasant to sit on the beach,
On the beach, on the sand, in the sun,
And nothing at all to be done!No letters to answer,
No bills to be burned,
No work to be shirked,
No cash to be earned,
It is pleasant to sit on the beach
With nothing at all to be done!To lave in the wave,
Majestic and chilly,
Tomorrow I crave;
But today it is silly.The sun and the sand
No contractor can copy;
We lie in the land
Of lotus and poppy;
We live, calm and romantic,
On the beach, on the sand, in the sun, in the sea ! -
Story
Saudade
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Promenade, Soubresauts et Melodie
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Story
of letters and carnations
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03:14
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Story
Sables Mouvants - for soprano and piano
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Story
Lyrics
Roadside Grave
Roadside Grave (Japanese folk song)
If I die, bury me by the roadside
If I die, bury me by the roadside
Then every passer by will offer flowers at my grave
When I die, who will cry for me ?
Oh! When I die, who will cry for me ?
What flower will it be?
Will it be camelia? or will it be the cicada?
In the pine mountains behind us?
If I die, bury me by the roadside
If I die, bury me by the roadside
Then all the cicadas and all the camelia will cry for me.
When I die, bury me by the roadside
Then every passer-by and all the passers-by
Will offer flowers at my grave.
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03:42
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Neverland
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02:09
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Afternoon Dance
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The Enchanted Pavillion
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01:59
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Bercioso
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I-95