Nani
versions 1, 2, and 3
These short electro-acoustic pieces came out of my collaboration with the flutist Chryssi Dimitriou: she had heard of my works based on existing repertoire, and therefore commissioned me to compose works based on a traditional Greek lullaby. It was Chryssi who introduced me to several different versions of the traditional Greek lullaby Nani, including an a cappella version by Stella Gadadi. I listened to this version several times without understanding the text; when I read a translation afterwards, I was struck by the fact that there was something of the strange mixture of tenderness and anguish of the text in the musical expression of the work, particularly in the inflections of the voice of Gadadi. I decided to try to convey these characteristics without maintaining either recognisable elements of the text, which would retain some traces of the meaning of the words, or explicit quotations of the harmony, which might transmit coded expressive associations; I therefore limited myself to the use of a few brief samples of the noise content of Gadadi’s voice, drawn principally from her breathing between phrases. I hoped to thereby preserve aspects of the interpretation without reproducing the work itself; however, the temporality of the work is conserved, as the breaths used in my version to excite ‘virtual’ percussion instruments occur in the same time frame as in the original recording. Nani, version 1 is dedicated to Suleiman Baraka, and Nani, version II, a second interpretation of the lullaby, is dedicated to the memory of his son Ibrahim. The third version was composed for the festival Sonorities, in a special concert of works based on samples from Paul Stapleton’s instrumentarium, which he calls the MiSS.
TEXT
Nani, my child, nani,
to our big horse, who did not care to drink water.
Oh, my heart, who knows
what does the little river narrate at the tender meadow.
Nani, to the black water,
that is flowing through the green grass,
and singing.
Nani, to my rose,
watering the earth with tears,
Our good, brave horse...
He has his legs, wounded,
his body, frozen
he has a silver knife,
nailed in his eyes,
only once, when he saw the fearless mountains,
he neighed and vanished
into the dark waters.
Oh, where have you gone, my horse,
you, who did not care to drink water,
oh, this heartache in the snow.
Nani, to my carnation flower,
watering the earth with tears,
Our good brave horse...
Do not come, do not come in,
close the window,
with foliages made by dreams,
with dreams made by foliages.
My little child is sleeping,
my baby is silent.
Oh, where have you gone my horse,
you, who did not care for water,
you, the horse of the dawn.
