CORPS AccorD

For solo cello

Commissioned by the Ateliers du Violoncelle 2024, premiered in March 2024 at the Atelier du Plateau (Paris) by Valentine Boonen.

Corps Accord is a three-part piece for solo cello that explores and unfolds around the identity of the musician on stage: what is their relationship to the performance space, to their instrument, to others (the audience), and, above all, to themselves? What if the space in which they present themselves — in performance, in representation — revealed them as they truly are, in their uniqueness and artistic essence? How can they sincerely, humorously, and with deliberate missteps, subvert the established stage rituals and conventions to transform them into a sensitive, expressive narrative?

The piece aims to explore the musician’s gestures — often left out of traditional scores. It delves into stage rituals, individual tics and habits, including stress, clammy hands, breathing, and the preparatory gesture of raising the bow… Each movement, initially intended to be controlled, forms a counterpoint of gesture — a narrative that ultimately leads to a loss of control, a trance-like state, until the performer finds their own personal accord (chord).

The piece has been premiered by Valentine Boonen at the Ateliers du Violoncelle and at the Lavoir Moderne Parisien for the Semaine Classique au Lavoir, performed by Juliette Hubert at the POTE Festival in Besançon, and by Hortense Airault at the Festival Quatuor à Vendôme and Konnekt.