PROJECT | L'AUTRE (The Other)
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L’Autre (The Other)

The work is scored for 1 horn, 2 percussion, 1 harp, 1 mezzo-soprano/narrator, and stereo tape.  The piece was commissioned by Radio France and was premiered at the Presence Festival in Paris by the Continuum Ensemble with Joel Sachs conducting in 1999.  The piece could not have been completed without generous support from IRCAM and the Center for New Music and Audio Technologies.

In L’Autre, the age-old artistic contention for ascendancy between poetry and music mirrors the struggle between consciousness and the unconscious. Through a deeply interwoven collaboration between composer Edmund Campion and poet John Campion L’Autre begins with the origins and hopeful emergence of consciousness out of the unconscious--the birth of language (the logos) out of a primordial welter of sounds and syllables. The work traces the development of this Ur-relationship through the usurpation and domination of the unconscious by consciousness, the feminine by the masculine. This conflict is portrayed as a modern fear of "The Other"-- race, culture, and gender. As the piece progresses, the kinship between the two elemental principles becomes untenable. After much terrible experience, the repressed feminine, reborn with gnosis, returns with song to offer its counterpart another, different, chance at collaboration.

The work is scored for 1 horn, 2 percussion, 1 harp, 1 mezzo-soprano/narrator, and stereo tape.  The piece could not have been completed without generous support from IRCAM and the Center for New Music and Audio Technologies

FULL TEXT FOR L'AUTRE

Part I

She is a sow
cooked in the belly
Earth comes of Her.
We offer the skirt of Pele
--hips move the sacred hula,
her breath
geothermal,
holy place we are born.
         
Look at the inner parts
whatever's hot is mine
You may not take
whatever's hot is sacred.

(The names of endangered peoples)

Part II

       

ON THE INSTITUTION OF THE MOTHERHOOD MEDAL  AND ORDER OF MOTHERHOOD GLORY, AND ESTABLISHMENT OF THE TITLE OF HONOR HEROINE MOTHER   

Article 13                  

...7 children 2nd class 
...8 children 3rd class
...9 children 4th class   

    

(The names of endangered peoples)

   So nice a pretty white nice, all made up, face topped off stacks of honey-blond a Q-tanned wrapped tight two shaved shapelies tucked neat in sheer raised on ruby-reds.   Up and off get me on ya know how so what's left whenever nobody's nobody dreaming ya take wherever ya can whatever

really
         
Part III        

(Text appears in English, Spanish, French, and Russian)

Go to the waters, pull out a stone
and place it in a flame;
then pull out the heart,
releasing with words,
a field of flowers.

No thing but in relation.
Deepening others, we become ourselves
--the spark leaps with synaptic faith.

Only one great thing sings me--
when I am mindful.

Lakes cannot abide their depths being
plumbed.
Vaya al agua, saque una piedra,
y metelo en una flama;
luego,  remueve el corazon
y libera con palabras
un campo de flores.

Nada sino en relacion.
Profundizando en el otro,
llegamos a ser nosotros
--la chispa salta con fe
sinaptica.
Hay una sola cosa que me canta--
cuando atento estoy.

El lago no sufre que su abismo
sea plomado.		    


(Song)
She is memory.
A girl with shining face and eyes of a bird
hiding presents under Her dress

Like rivers to the mill
roots connect underground.
Pull one up
a star falls from the sky.

Joining mouth and tail
hands turn the heavens
--calendar, pitch pipe, so close,
you cannot slip a hair between.

CODA

The woman with her dragon horse
divines the path to paradise.

 

L'AUTRE  ( French Translation)

Composer: Edmund Campion
Text and Conception: John Campion

French Translation by Eliane Aberdam

1ère partie

C'est est une truie.
Cuisinée dans le ventre,
la Terre sort d'Elle.
Nous offrons la jupe de PÉlÉ.
--les hanches dansent la hula sacrée.
Son souffle
géothermal,
l'endroit béni oó nous naissons.

  *    *    *

Regarde les parties intérieures
  ce qui est chaud est mien
Tu ne peux prendre ce qui est chaud
  ce qui est chaud est sacré.
2ème partie        

DE L'INSTITUTION DE LA MêDAILLE DE LA MATERNITê ET DE L'ORDRE DE LA GLOIRE DE LA MATERNITê, ET DE L'êTABLISSEMENT DU TITRE D'HONNEUR DE LA MERE HêROINE.

Article 13
...7 enfants, 2ème classe
...8 enfants, 3ème classe
...9 enfants, 4ème classe   

 

 

 


(the names of endangered peoples)    

  Si mignone,
un si joli visage
tout blanc,
entièrement maquillé
coiff de mèches
blondes platinées
des cuisses bien roulées,
couvertes de Nivéa
autobronzante,
toutes deux bien lisses

et joliment faites,
bien moulées dans
des dim-voiles
très fins,
et réhausses de hauts
talons rouges.		   Up and off get me on ya know how so what's left whenever nobody's nobody dreaming ya take wherever ya can whatever

really


Va aux eaux, prends une pierre
et mets-la dans une flamme;
puis retire-lui le coeur,
lebérant un champ de fleurs par des mots.

Tout n'est que relation.
En approfondissant les autres, nous devenons nous-mémes
--l'étincelle saute par sa foi synoptique.
Il n'y a qu'une chose qui me chante--
lorsque je suis attentive.

Les lacs ne peuvent supporter le sondage de leurs profondeurs;

(Chanson)

La chose qu'Elle porte est mémoire.
La fille au visage rayonnant et aux yeux d'oiseau
descend vers I'eau cachant des cadeaux.

De son ventre sortiront les nouvelles eaux.

Comme les rivières au moulin,
les racines se relient sous terre.
Lorsque l'on en arrache une
une  toile tombe du ciel.

Joignant bouche et queue
les mains se tournent vers les cieux
--calendrier et diapason, si proches,
qu'on ne peut y faire glisser un cheveu.

(Coda)

La femme chevauchant son dragon
prédit le chemin du paradis.