Quatuor Voce

Voce Quartet
Compagnie 10 doigts en cavale
Célia Chauvière and Iliana Coffin, translation and adaptation into sign language, dance, sign-song
Magali Caillol, voice-over, external perspective

Narrative framework and texts adapted from "La forêt de flammes et d’ombres" by Akira Mizubayashi (Gallimard, 2025)

As we approach the bicentenary of Beethoven's death (1770-1827), we are particularly interested in the composer's final period. Despite being completely deaf, his creative power was extraordinary. He wrote his last five string quartets, which are absolute masterpieces. The Cavatina, the slow movement of his Quartet Op. 130, is included on the Voyager Golden Record, a disc containing sounds from Earth that was sent into space in 1977 with the Voyager probe as an ‘interstellar message in a bottle’ intended for possible extraterrestrial intelligence.

Our encounter with Akira Mizubayashi, a Japanese author writing in French, began with the reading of his novels, in which music plays a central role. We were also impressed by one of his interviews, his very apt words and his enlightened vision of the string quartet. After several fascinating exchanges, we decided to collaborate on his texts and our repertoire. In his next novel, entitled La forêt de flammes et d'ombres (The Forest of Flames and Shadows), the author focuses on two major works from the string quartet repertoire: the Cavatina from Opus 130 and Felix Mendelssohn's Opus 13, a tribute work composed shortly after Beethoven's death. 

Our encounter with the 10 Doigts en Cavale collective and our discovery of chansigne, an expressive and physical practice derived from sign language, has had a profound impact on our reflections on Beethoven's creative power in his final three years.

Through this multifaceted project, we aim to show the universality of Beethoven's legacy and ‘how a man, through his intense focus on his inner self, communicates more deeply than perhaps any other musician with humanity as a whole’ (Bernard Fournier).

BEETHOVEN
String Quartet No. 13 in B flat major, Op. 130 (excerpts)

MENDELSSOHN
String Quartet in A minor, Op. 13 (excerpts)

Production : Association Les Voce
Co-production : Fondation Royaumont