Connections between L’Ange du Tamaris and folk music from the Tuareg People in Subsaharan Africa
There is are several direct similarities between Jean-Louis Florentz’ writing in the piece and the transcriptions of specific Anzad melodies from the Garland Encyclopedia. The connection between Florentz and this music came from the fact that he made many field trips to countries in Africa, one of which is Ethiopia, to discover new music and integrate it into his own work. The extracts I found in the Encyclopedia depict music that originates from areas that Florentz has visited, and the style that this melody represents suggest that this music was heard in all areas of society, the anzad mainly in the higher ranks and the tende in the lower ranks. I believe that Florentz will have come in contact with these kinds of music and that the elements of these styles are sure to have permeated into his own composition.
The first extract is an Anzad melody called ‘Tihadanaren’, which is an improvisatory melody specifically written for the Ethiopian one-stringed fiddle. What immediately stands out is the similarity of the general appearance of the score. Looking globally at both scores I see clusters of fast notes broken up by long, sustained notes. A definite characteristic of the anzad melody is this frantic activity being interrupted by a halt and sustain, as if to take a breath before continuing a story. There appears to be little melodic material, and the transcription is mainly a showcase of virtuosity. Nevertheless, the musical material found in this excerpt does reflect material found in L’Ange du Tamaris.
I will show two extracts from the score of the ‘Tihadanaren’, which I compare to some of the material from Florentz’ composition. Mostly, as the anzad song is quite consistent in its style and mood, all three excerpts are quite similar, with some exceptions in the continuity of the tones and rhythm. Similarly, the three excerpts from L’Ange du Tamaris serve similar purposes in the context of the piece. Similarly to what I mentioned about the short breaths or break taken in between the phrases of the anzad, in Florentz music there are also short breaths in the flurries of faster notes. One of the phrases in Florentz comes with characteristics that occur often, namely the ending of a flurry into rests. This can also be regarded as a (long) breath before the next phrase starts.
But even clearer is the notation that Florentz uses within the flurries to indicate breaths. I believe that the breath is similar to the effect of the anzad, the effect being sudden and functioning as a retake. Florentz indicates with a dot at the end of the flurry to cut, breathe and re-emphasise the continuation with the emphasis line.
Now, when one listens to the recording of this written anzad fragment, what immediately strikes the listener is the apparent lack of details that are heard. The cluster of short, fast notes sound very rapid, almost a literal flurry, and one cannot make out the distinct pitches in the transcription. Furthermore, what is most lacking is any form of rhythm. The becomes clear from the grouping of notes being quite arbitrary, and sometimes spanning almost thirty seperate notes. What remains audible, however, is that the fast notes have an equal length, so in there remains a slight pulse in the flurry. This leads me to the conclusion that there is a specific way the rapid notes in Florentz’ L’Ange du Tamaris must be played. This musical fragment occurs often, usually at the end of a phrase, instead of beginning the phrase as in the anzad melody. Yet the musical material remains the same, therefore I believe Florentz intended these small samples of fast notes to resemble the flurries used in anzad fiddle music.
The second extract is also anzad music, but this time for the fiddle and a singing voice. Unfortunately there is no audio recording available of this fragment, but combining the knowledge from the transcription for anzad solo and its recording, I have quite a good idea of how this might sound. Here the flurries of notes is less present, to allow the singing voice the space to be on the foreground and have the lyrics clearly audible. But this particular song consists of heavily ornamented melodic lines of which there is also an abundance in Florentz’ L’Ange du Tamaris. These ornaments may be of any kind, ranging from a single repeated note to short rapid flurries through great interval jumps.
To me the transcription of this anzad song for voice and fiddle looks very similar to the way Florentz has organised his musical material, notably long singing lines interrupted by short flurries of notes. The way the melody on the anzad enhances the vocal line leads me to consider that Florentz might have combined the idea of a singing voice and an anzad accompaniment, thereby having both the singing qualities of the voice and the rough, flurried sound of the anzad written out for a single instrument. This of course requires a constant change in sound quality, to mimic this distinction.
Furthermore, on the subject of sound quality one must think of another aspect of this anzad n-asak (a song called a tesîwit for voice and anzad), namely the quality of the voice. Apparently the ideal sought after in the Tuareg tradition is to have the traditionally male voice sing in a rather high pitch range, and strongly tightening his throat muscles to achieve a very sharp and strained voice. This in turn might also have influenced Florentz’ concept of sound quality in these singing lines, therefore the same kind of sound should be sought after in this piece. It is important to bear in mind which lines are male voice and which lines are anzad.
I have included three excerpts from the tesîwit, and have put them alongside two excerpts from corresponding material from L’Ange du Tamaris. The top line is a fragment from the anzad line, and the two bottom lines are from the vocal part. Florentz’ material has also been ordered by me as the anzad has, the top line corresponding to the anzad part and the bottom line corresponding to the vocal part. What becomes apparent is the difference in the condensation of the material. The anzad part contains many complicated rhythms, like the top line of Florentz’ material. Both lines are characterised by fast, short rhythmic gestures, interwoven with longer, melodic notes.
The second lines of both music styles are slower in relative tempo. Where the anzad is fast an virtuosic, the vocal line gets more space to sing and lean on note patterns. The second line of L’Ange du Tamaris shares this singing quality. The flow of the music is slower, the intervals are smaller, so the general grouping of pitches are closer. Both second lines seem less wild in gestures when compared to the first lines, so the calm singing quality is more evident and natural. In both contrasting excerpt lines, the functions of notes are similar in that fast notes are gestures that create flow from one long note to the next, yet in the top lines the gestures are wilder and place importance on these gestures, while the bottom lines place more importance on the singing notes while calmly connecting these through the faster notes.
Because the general overview of the music transcripts are so similar, I am led to believe that these two styles are similar, and that Florentz indeed learned from the sounding of these songs. However, Florentz of course took this material and made it his own to let is serve his story in L’Ange du Tamaris. However, I suspect that this music is not the only influence Florentz gained from his field trips to Africa. The lesson from Dominique de Williencourt will either confirm or deny this.
The Musical Spirit of Jean-Louis Florentz 