Viva Brighton Issue #45 November 2016

CLASSICAL
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Medicine and Mortality
Satoko Doi-Luck from Ensemble Molière
How would you
describe French
Baroque music? It’s
beautiful, exquisite,
sometimes calm,
sensual, sensitive, sentimental,
passionate,
colourful and deep.
The ‘Medicine and
Mortality’ piece that
you are performing
at this year’s
Brighton Early Music
Festival has narration
- how does that work? We placed the pieces
of music in a narrative flow, and have narration
between the works to bring the whole story and
the music together as one.
Do you find narration helps the audience to
engage with a story? Definitely. We believe it
enables us to draw the audience into the world of
the story as well as the music and sound. Hopefully
we transform the venue into a scene from
17th-century Paris in winter.
How did the story of it being a day in a 17thcentury
French hospital come about? The
programme evolved from Marin Marais’ unique
Le tableau de l’opération de la taille; the combination
of spoken text, virtuosic playing and overarching
drama is incredibly exciting and served to inspire
the ensemble. Each player went on to find pieces
that excited them and engaged with the theme.
Together the ensemble worked these pieces into
a tale of a Parisian gentleman in a hospital. The
incorporation of an original script has been a new
challenge for the ensemble and we have thoroughly
enjoyed writing, re-writing and tweaking
the tale of this fellow.
Explain how music can be ‘medically themed’.
Music can be themed in various ways - descriptive,
theatrical, and imaginative.
This piece
of Marais’ describes
the actual operation
of a bladder-stone
removal without
anaesthetic. Marais
wrote a short description
of each scene
on top of the music
score, for example,
“Knotting the silk
restrains for arms
and legs”, “Then the
stone is drawn”, and “Blood flows”. We will also
perform the theatrical and imaginative Deadly Place
and Sleep by the great composer Jean-Philippe
Rameau.
Do you compose your own music? Personally,
yes, but not for Ensemble Molière. However, I
arrange a lot for the ensemble which enables us
to play a wider repertoire and helps us to create
narrative programmes. Having studied composition
helps a lot.
Do all five instruments and musicians have
equal roles? The five instruments are equally
important in different roles. We can all take the
lead, and different roles include melody line, inner
harmony, counterpoint, obbligato, continuo, and
numerous others, depending on the piece in question.
For baroque music, however, harmony is one
of most important elements.
If you didn’t play the harpsichord, what instrument
would you play? I love all period instruments,
but I especially like the sound of the viola
da gamba; to me it’s so close to the human voice -
it once made me cry within five seconds as the way
it was played was so touching. Julia Zaltzman
Friends’ Meeting House, Sat 5th, 1pm, £12/£10
bremf.org.uk
Photo by Harry Roth
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