The French accordion pieces

Last year, around November, a friend approached me and asked me to write something for him. He plays the accordion. I was a bit scared because I have never written anything for that instrument, and I felt also that I was a great responsibility to write something on commission, especially for a friend. I could not let him down. But I must also confess that I let the rest of the year pass, without writing a single note for this project. 

Then, walking around the Hague, on a really cloudy day that suddenly became sunny, thinking about a friend that lived not far from where I was, I had a vision of a melody. I thought this whole situation was so ridiculous, so terribly cheesy, that I immediately thought of some Jean-Pierre Jeunet film (if the name doesn't ring any bells, maybe the film Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulenc does, at least for the music), so I decided to write the piece, but to give it a title in French. The piece was called Paysage de la ville où tu habites aussi (landscape of the city where you also live). 

 

 

The city where you also live

 

After I finished it I decided to make it a part of a collection of pieces, so I decided to write three more. Now I am beginning to write the second one, I hope. Yesterday I threw away everything that I had written about it, because I thought it didn't work, but then I showed it to my friend and he played it a bit differently and it worked! so I think today I'll continue along those lines. I already have some ideas for the titles of the pieces.

• Je n'ai pas imaginé les montagnes, les oceans
• Se laisser porter par la fleuve ou le sommeil

The second one I took from Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius, a short story by Borges (of course). I like that they are so abstract, because that gives me the freedom to work completely outside of their meaning, and even make the music unrelated to them. I just keep them because they sound nice. Also I wanted to avoid the impressionist-like title of Les jardins sous la pluie or something of that kind. I prefer the more Takemitsu-like title A flock descends on the pentagonal garden.

In terms of structure, the pieces are very short, not more that 2 minutes each, and each work around one idea only (at least that's the initial plan). I want them to have a more naive sound, but with a dark or weird side as well.