Commissioned as part of the Percussions de Strasbourg/Espace Rohan touring cycle.
Creation : 29/05/1999, Espace Rohan (Saverne, France)
Musicians: 6 percussionists et 1 Djiembé
Duration : 21′
Dedicated to : Les Percussions de Strasbourg and Adama Dramé
Bangka is a small Sunda island in the Java Sea off the coast of Sumatra…. In this piece, I wanted to make a synthesis of the rhythms and timbres of Indonesian and African music whose influence has become inevitable. The difficulty is to introduce these elements into learned music without betraying the spirit of these powerful cultures, which have become universal. Modes, dynamics, melodies and pulsation are expressive parameters that are constant enough to bring popular music closer together. Written music is merely a stylisation and amplification of these subtle combinations. Bach in his time transcended all exotism in his abstract pieces with such concrete sources (German, Mexican-Spanish sarabande, Scottish gigue, French gavotte, etc…). Bangka is both a poetic and geographical indication, and a rhythmic onomatopoeia played by the djembe at the beginning of the work. The simple and clear motif will be the driving force of the piece where the soloist’s improvisations are directly taken from the written parts of the six percussionists.
Christian LAUBA