Caroline Charrière

La diction

Anyone who has sung in a choir knows the unavoidable and more or less boring exercises of the beginning of a rehearsal: vocal warm-up. Caroline Charriere has drawn a parody from this phase of the rehearsal. There is some self-mockery by the composer and experienced choir director, but also a humorous approach to these scales and twists that are essential for the proper positioning of the jaw and the zygomatics. Diction is one of the last works of Caroline Charriere. Very affected in her health, she nevertheless kept her sense of humor and it is on a funny and amused note that she thanks the Chœur de Jade 'for the beautiful years of shared music'. She had founded the women's vocal ensemble in 1991 and directed it until the last months of her life, having always had at heart to demonstrate that the musical possibilities of this formation are as rich and varied as those of the mixed choir.
This piece, a true micro-opera that recounts the tensions between the expectations of the conductor and the choristers, who sometimes arrive tired at rehearsal on Thursday evenings, is custom written for the singers of the Chœur de Jade. It deftly combines words and music, with the singers transforming themselves throughout the piece into tutti, 'instrumentalists' imitating the barrel organ or even soloists. In the same spirit as Ds Ding (2011), Caroline Charrière plays with words as much as with notes, exploiting the musicality of each syllable. The piece is populated with references: introduction in fanfare mode, refrain, first solo borrowed from the drinking song 'Quand je bois du vin clairet' which ends in the manner of the Russian song Kalinka, interlude on the 'dos du dindon' (the turkey’s back) in the manner of an 18th century opera bouffe, which segues into the 'chachacha' motif, an allusion both to Serge's cat (chat) and to the dance of the 1950's, leading to an open argument between the chorus members and the conductor... Caroline Charriere of course dedicates the piece to 'her' Chœur de Jade, but also to 'those who think that a ladies' choir is serious or boring!'