Une Semaine de Bonté (A Week Of Kindness) is the title of an enigmatic 'visual' novel by the German Surrealist, Max Ernst. In it, Ernst superimposes incongruous images - usually of animals - onto prints taken from the French equivalent of ‘penny-dreadful’ magazines. So painstakingly is this done that you can never see the joins in the finished article. The end result is usually violent or erotic or both.
1) LE LION DE BELFORT (The Lion Of Belfort) Sunday
This is a tango preceded by a slow solo baritone saxophone waltz.
2) L’EAU (Water) Monday
The waltz returns played by the alto. An uncentred melodic line floats, whilst a constant ebbing and flowing of tempo obtains; the first tentative statement of Book 5 material accompanies. The waltz, played by the tenor, closes this section.
3) LA COUR DU DRAGON (The Court Of The Dragon) Tuesday
This is a fast and furious canonic fantasy. The main motive is a lateral transformation of the tango material. Academics amongst you might be interested to know that the canon gets closer temporally and pitch-wise as the piece progresses. Non-canonic interventions include the ubiquitous waltz tune (on the tenor), the coda and a slow chorale just past the middle. The chorale and the slow canon that precedes it both acquire greater significance in Book 5.
4) OEDIPE (Oedipus) Wednesday
A march/scherzo interrupted only by the waltz (soprano), fully harmonised for the first time. Short, but nevertheless manic improvisations are included.
At this juncture, Ernst rolls the last three days into one book, provides two ‘stories’ for Thursday and includes three ‘visual poems’ that are uniquely obscure. This seeming undermining of his own strategies probably informed my approach to this piece as much as anything else. This movement is basically a set of variations.
5) LE RIRE DU COQ (The Rooster’s Laughter) Thursday
After a brief, quiet introduction (11 notes of a 12-tone melody), the quartet begin a slightly awash, but frantic unison (on the missing note of the 12). This opening motif becomes a kind of cantus firmus for the rest of the section.
5a) L’ÎLE DE PAQUES - (Easter Island) Thursday (alternative)
The melody that formed the slow middle canon in Book 3 is now stated in octaves by the soprano and alto, accompanied by a disjunct tenor and baritone.
6) L’INTERIEUR DE LA VUE (The Interior of Sight) Friday
Subtitled ‘Trois Poèmes Visibles’ by Ernst, this section employs silences and extreme dynamic contrast.
7) LA CLE DES CHANTS (The Key To Songs) Saturday
An energetic last section, this includes and eventually culminates in the earlier ‘chorale’.
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