Farce

About

Interview originally published in the concert program of the Orchestre de chambre de Paris.

Last September, the Orchestre de chambre de Paris premiered Clara Olivares’s piece Blue Spine. As associate composer of the ensemble, the Franco-Spanish musician discusses her new work, Farce, which we hear tonight as a world premiere. Tell us about your new piece…

Clara Olivares. The Orchestre de chambre de Paris commissioned this Farce. It is the first time I have tackled the idea of humor in music. It was the occasion for a wonderful artistic exchange with the orchestra’s programming director, Chrysoline Dupont, to whom my score is dedicated. We imagined an unconventional work, a true nod to Mozart’s First Symphony, a piece by an eight-year-old child. Humor in music takes many forms, from Mozart’s musical jokes to the irony of Schnittke, Shostakovich, or Shchedrin, and the comic effects of Haydn.


Where does your Farce stand?

C.O. My score begins and ends with the same arpeggiated chord as Mozart’s symphony. I even included other elements that directly reference this symphony, such as the triple meter of its second movement. These are not explicit quotations but rather affectionate and admiring transformations, with no intention of irony. There is no developed theme, as I build from motifs. I seek the density of the sound material, even in simple materials. My approach might be more Beethovenian than Mozartian.


Did you imagine, during the composition or even at the beginning of the writing, a narrative structure?

C.O. The piece is in a single movement, a single “moving” momentum—which does not preclude breaks, which also belong to the humorous universe of music—as if it were tableaux nested within each other.


Do you use a specific instrumentation?

C.O. I use the cornett a wooden wind instrument used notably in Renaissance repertoire, ed.. The string sections are divided, and some winds are tuned a quarter tone lower. Finally, I play with both equal temperament and meantone temperament.


How do you situate this score in your catalogue?

C.O. The idea of double temperament is fully exploited in this piece, but above all, it is the first time I have composed a score—carefully written and not seeking to parody any contemporary aesthetic—that does not take itself seriously! A breath of fresh air that I (that we) really needed!