Philippe Manoury: Inharmonies

Fragments d'Héraclite
Inharmonies
Slova
Trakl Gedichte

Accentus/Laurence Equilbey

Naive 5217

This is a frustrating disc because although text are supplied in three language with parallel translations, they are almost completely indecipherable for the listener trying to follow Philippe Manoury's musical thinking, and are not much clearer on repetition, even with a timer to show you more or less where you should be...

The texts themselves, Heraclitus, Langer & Trakl, are fascinating and surely meant to be heard?

But the music is amazing and the choir sounds as if it can confidently meet Manoury's requirements, with the aid of an electronic tuner "which enables singers to produce sounds of a precision beond the capacities of the human ear..."

The music is of a mind-boggling yet exilarating complexity; perhaps a first step to comprehension would be to have track timings to the individual verses, so that those of us who are lost can regain kwhere we should be.

Maybe the BBC Chorus should have a go at some of these pieces?

If I find any positive reviews, I will happily add links to them.

Peter Grahame Woolf