Title: Birds Singing in the Ravine (⻦鸣涧)
Instruments: guqin and voices. On a poem of Wang Wei
Duration: 2'34"
Year of composition: 2025
Ownership, publisher: author
First performance: Lin Chen, Sylvain Denoux. Foyer de création et d'échanges 2025, Chateau de Cerisy, August 10th, 2025
Written for Lin Chen
In the spirit of creative collaboration at the Foyer de création et d'échanges 2025, Chateau de Cerisy, I had the precious opportunity to discover, thanks to Lin Chen, the guqin, a traditional Chinese stringed instrument.
In a concert performed on August 10th, in the living room of the Château de Cerisy, Lin Chen - with the collaboration of Sylvain Denoux - presented 8th century poems by Li Wang Wei, the poet who is the subject of her doctoral thesis at the Université de la Méditerranée-Aix-Marseille-II.
I took the opportunity to compose a short piece for guqin inspired by Wang Wei’s “Birds Singing in the Ravine” (⻦鸣涧), a Tang dynasty quatrain in five-character lines.
⿃ 鳴 澗
⼈ 閑 桂 花 落
夜 靜 春 ⼭ 空
⽉ 出 驚 ⼭ ⿃
時 鳴 春 澗 中
LE RAVIN AUX CHANTS D’OISEAUX
(traduit par Florence Hu-Sterk)
Vie oisive, tombent les fleurs de cassier ;
Nuit calme, montagnes vides au printemps.
La lune surgit, effrayant les oiseaux des monts ;
Parfois, dans le ravin, résonnent leurs chants.