Encyclopédie de la parole Joris Lacoste – Suite nº1 (redux)

An introduction to the series of choral suites, Suite n°1 is an ABC exploration of our everyday orality using forty or so documents reproduced in unison by a choir. The orchestration effect of this virtuoso choir is the dissolution of the individual, making way for the true character of the piece: the spoken word.

Suite n°1 inaugurates a series of choral suites composed by Joris Lacoste in order to explore several dimensions of sound restitution, such as unison, superposition, vocal counterpoint and musical harmony. In line with this very specific line of approach, each show in the series enables us to hear a different part of the Encyclopédie de la parole’s collection, enriched by numerous sound documents specially collected for the occasion. In Suite n°1, a choir explores in unison certain fundaments of the spoken human word: the b.a.-ba, blabla, brouhaha, basic vocabulary, the pleasure of speaking for speaking, the game of translation and the joy of languages we do not understand. By experiencing situations which have nothing to do with each other, and entering into collision modes of speaking which are as commonplace as they are unique, the piece brings into existence a sort of empirical grammar of our common orality. This ABC of the ordinary spoken word will be re-created for the Festival by fifteen apprentice actors from the Asnières studio-théâtre accompanied for the purpose of these first scales by seven actors from the original cast in addition to their choir leader, Nicolas Rollet.