BÉTON

For children's choir

Comissioned by Les Cris de Paris | Geoffroy Jourdain

“What is a city? It’s the opposite of the forest. The opposite of nature. A city is an artificial, humanized territory. It is a space designed exclusively for humans. Humans have excluded the possibility of any other forms of life in the city. Any life that tries to exist in the city is destroyed. If it survives, it is thanks to the resilience of the organic, not because humans allow it.”

— Antonio Bispo dos Santos (Nego Bispo), A terra dá, a terra quer

Piece in four short episodes:

I – Avant la ville / II – Béton / III – Tombé / IV – Tombe

Béton is a piece for children’s choir that seeks to spark a sensitive and critical look at how we inhabit the world—especially in large urban environments.

In four episodes, the piece evokes—through singing and a not-so-conventional score—various familiar elements of city life: advertising, occasionally hostile architecture, communication difficulties, and the lingering feeling that things could be different.

Score