Et c’est la nuit

The words for this piece were taken from two French poems: LHeure du Berger, by Paul Verlaine, and Le Lac by the ultra-Romantic Alphonse de Lamartine. It was important for me to think of the age gap between myself and the girls of La Matrise de Radio France, who commissioned the piece roughly fifty years!

The poet(s) describes a beautiful, memorable night, and tries to convince Time to slow down: Let us savour the fleeting delights of our fairest days! But the boat continues under a red moon, and the water lilies close their petals. There are three movements, and the third has an extended ending on the words eternity and nothingness.

Judith Bingham