Karol Beffa

Le roi qui n'aimait pas la musique

In the fall of 2017, Mathieu Laine submitted a text for children, Le Roi qui n'aime pas la musique, which he wanted me to transform into a musical tale. The version I composed then was for narrator, violin, cello, clarinet and piano. We recorded it, Patrick Bruel, Renaud Capuçon, Edgar Moreau, Paul Meyer and me. It was published as a book-disc by Gallimard.

The tale narrates the moods of a monarch with a jealous character reigning over a micro-society of four musicians to whom he gradually forbids to play their instrument, until forcing them into total silence. A period of desolation ensued, but the arrival of a traveler and the advice of a fairy who suggested that the king be taught to beat the drum allowed the music to be reborn and the landscape to be revived. My composition follows the plot of the story as closely as possible: serenity and cheerfulness are disturbed as and when, climate of melancholy, anguish and despondency, rebirth and newfound vivacity. Wishing to respect the pedagogical aim of this collection of books-records, I presented at the beginning, instrument by instrument, the four subjects of the small kingdom. Although the piece was intended for a children's audience, I had wanted a musical writing that pays tribute to the breathtaking technique of the three virtuoso instrumentalists and I had enjoyed peppering it with acrobatics of all kinds: gaps, movements, speed, rhythmic swaying, extreme registers ...

Commissioned by the Saxo Voce ensemble, this version is for narrator, saxophone quartet and piano. This is not a new composition on Mathieu Laine's text but an arrangement of the original version. It retains its acrobatic character and multiplies the musical challenges that these virtuoso saxophonists have fun thwarting.

Karol Beffa