Brass Band version
Lifeblood was composed as part of the project « Immortels » organized by the “Corps de Musique de Saint-Imier”. This project has been inspired by the works of the artist Cedric Bregnard, especially his century-old trees’ paintings. More precisely, Lifeblood describes the “fig tree of Sri-Lanka” painting following the philosophy of Cedric Bregnard.
According to Cedric, that this fig tree was revered by the Buddhist monks. Therefore I began to select a row of seven tones evoking to me the purity of the Buddhist religion. This tone row is the only thematic element in the entire work and comes in general in this order: C-G-Bb-F-A-E-G (in C).
A peculiarly interesting concept in Cedric’s view is the fact that our lives are made of little steps in which we change, evolve and face failures or tragedies. So we can see our lives as a big web of little lives and little deaths. After a little death, we have to question ourselves to become stronger and better. In the beginning of the work, the tree is not more than a sapling. Then it becomes bigger with different branches and more and more leafs. In the music, we can see a constant rhythm’s acceleration as well as an increasing tone row’s interweaving between the instruments. We can find three distinct spots where the music is developed this way (measures 1 to 32, 32 to 56 and 95 to the end). After these parts (where the fig tree is growing) comes a moment of joy which describes the beauty and strength of the tree. Yet, in the measure 76, the atmosphere changes, becoming darker and depicting a little death’s episode for the tree. This part also pictures the persecution and massacre of the Sri-lankan Buddhist monks by guerrillas. At measure 95, it’s the beginning of a new “little life” on the same shape than before, but this time on a more homorhythmic and colossal way because the tree has grown a lot. In the end, everything goes quite again to announce the ending of this little life and, maybe, the beginning of an other.
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