Hymne I

Hymne I (2010) is the first part of a cycle for flute, piano and percussions entitled Hymnes à la nuit (Hymns to the night), as a reference to the Hymnen an die Nacht by Novalis. It is a cycle of six pieces – as the six texts constituting the German poet’s work – that all present a different instrumental group, from the solo to the trio.

Beside the fascinating praise to the night and to the death-rebirth, what most appealed to me in Novalis’ Hymns is the way they talk to us about the very experience of the creation: how, in the strictest loneliness of this transcendental night, beyond time and space, man is at the very core of the work, in its elusive infinity. Maurice Blanchot tells us: “The work draws whomever devotes himself to it toward the point where it undergoes impossibility. An experience that is properly nocturnal, that is the very experience of the night.”

Jean-Pascal Chaigne
(translation Philippe Do)