Creation : 19 January 1999, Espace Rohan, Saverne, by the Children of Sarre-Union schools and Les Percussions de Strasbourg
Comisionner : DRAC Alsace, for Les Percussions de Strasbourg and the Association des Oeuvres scolaires de Sarre-Union
Musicians : 6 percussionists et 50 children
Duration : 30’
Publishing : Ed. Musicales Transatlantiques
Composition : 1998
“Each percussionist accompanies, directs and supports a group of children, and the professional adult guides the youngest on the path of music in a form of initiation to the basic elements of collective musical practice: rhythmic precision, listening to others, control of sound and time, sense of space, etc…. The children present here have not had, at least most of them, any musical training and therefore do not read music. To help them memorise simple rhythmic sequences, I have chosen to use several nursery rhymes from our popular heritage. These have accompanied children since the dawn of time in their learning of collective life through play, narration or the memory of words. As their name indicates, they are mainly used for counting, using often obscure formulas (Am-stram-gram…) and rhythmically characteristic. At the same time, they constitute a reserved domain of the child where the adult, representing reason, remains a priori removed from a phantasmagorical and supposedly absurd universe where the mouse is green and the pig lays eggs. Poetry is certainly not absent, quite the contrary, whereas the concern for meaning often gives way to the charms of alliteration and rhyme (Moustachi, Moustacha, closes the door because of the cat). In short, to music… »
Patrick MARCLAND