Gabrielle ARMENIER
EURYTHMY Agency
DOUBLE CONCERTO
LARGO MA NON TANTO
The Violinist begins with a long down-bow
The weight of the piece is already fully given; the theme descends into his sound
The Eurythmist, born from sound, joins his being to the tone.
and with the down bow, actively passive, falls gently forward.
What I give to you as a down bow - I carry forward and offer further
What I take as an up bow - I resuscitate flowing backwards
What I live as Downward and Upward experience – I live as a Forwards and Backwards one
What I live as a play between gravity and levity - I move between earthly front stage and cosmic upstage
As my right side surrenders its weight – I surrender all will
We share the same theme, but not in the same register
We do not sing as one voice singing the same melody twice, but as two voices singing to each other
You have begun moving, and I cascade sixteenth notes backwards and forwards on the fingerboard
And I sing with you, as my arms flow up and down
What I live as forwards and back – I live as up and down
What my left side enlivens as a towards me and an away from me – I harmonize between the heights and the depths
My downbow resounds in me as a stream of movement that begins far beyond the backdrop,
goes through me forward, and touches the Audience.
It is a dynamic
My Up Bow is a call. A direction
The larger, higher Audience hovering behind the backdrop calls to the Audience sitting in the theater.
Down Bow: to give life to sound.
To warm, spiraling sound
Up Bow: to purify sound
Pure, cool, crystalline, direct sound
I am in fact handicapped. If all was well made, I would not use the same arm for both bowings. The right hand would pull the bow down from the frog, and the left hand would pull the Up bow from the tip upwards. For an up bow is not pushed from the bottom up. It is called upwards from the heights. It is fully drawn there before being drawn.
Moving forward, I tumble into layers of warmth.
The Earth in all its cares is there
But shining backwards, my movement opens an immense space behind me.
The realm of the stars radiates light
In the interplay of down bows and up bows, the melody as a whole arises
In the interplay of forwards and backwards, the cosmic and the earthly realms are woven together
But what stays true for both of our experiences is Harmony
Both across the strings for me - and in-between my major right hand and minor land hand
harmony joins us.
Melody, a feeling tending towards a thought
Harmony, a musical feeling
Rhythm, a feeling almost become an act
I experience sound born from my hands. In the rounded palms of my hands
in the same palms I have when I move the colour black,
distal phalange of the thumb resting above those of the joined fingertips,
a mysterious space left open for warmth, for a life at the center of the darkness
as life within a seed, spiritual image of death
I touch both fingerboard and bow
And feel sound resounding there Opened out, my hands sing out light
What my rounded hands give birth to in warmth – shines forth as light from my open hands
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