Anemoia

Tone Poem • 2024
Grade 5 (hard) • ca. 15 min. • FC Music Publishing

Instrumentation : Picc, 3Fl, 2Ob, EH, 2Bsn, CBsn, EbCl, 3Cl, ACl, BCl, CbCl, SSax, 2ASax, TSax, BarSax, 4Tpt, 4Hn, 4Tbn, 2Euph, 2Tba, DBass, Hp, Pno, Timp, 5Perc

“Anemoia” is the name given by the writer John Koenig to the feeling of nostalgia that one feels for a time that one has never known. This emotion often translates into the uneasy sensation of having lost something important or of not living at the right place or time: who has never felt a pang in the heart when seeing a photograph dating from the Belle Époque or the Trente Glorieuses?

Fascinated by this concept, I tried to translate it into music oscillating between exaltation, anguish and nostalgia. This feeling being universal and deeply personal, the work will undoubtedly find a particular resonance with each person.

I. (un)desired sorrow

The first movement first evokes the feeling of unease one feels when suddenly struck by Anemoia. It then evolves into majestic atmospheres, marking our admiration for times gone by. A moment of musical suspension ends the movement: why be so nostalgic for a bygone era, which we know is not fundamentally better than ours? Isn’t this feeling, as unpleasant as it may be, ultimately something that we humans of the 21st century are doomed to seek?

II. behind the glass of time

The second movement treats Anemoia in a more melancholic way. When seeing that photograph from the early 1910’s, we hear the people in it speak, we imagine the noises, smells, sensations they feel… without being able to truly feel it. Finally, we are reduced to the state of spectators, held back by the impenetrable glass of passing time. All we can do is note the irremediable departure of time… and try to accept it.

The piece was written at the request of my friend Dominik Ziörjen, as part of his master's thesis at the Lausanne University of Music, and also served as my final orchestration work during my studies at the same school. It is dedicated to the most significant figure in my musical life: my teacher Jean-Claude Kolly who, in seven wonderful years of teaching, constantly encouraged and pushed me to flourish in the arts of conducting and composition.

The premiere took place on December 6, 2024 during Jean-Claude's last concert as a conductor of the Concordia de Fribourg, marking thirty years spent conducting this wonderful wind orchestra.