Hymne I (2010) by Jean-Pascal Chaigne
for flute

Hymne I (2010) is the first part of a cycle for flute, piano and percussion entitled Hymnes à la nuit, in reference to Hymnen an die Nacht by Novalis. This cycle comprises six pieces — like the six texts that make up the work of the German poet — which, from solo to trio, each present a different instrumental formation. The dimension that particularly attracted me to the Hymns of Novalis, beyond the fascinating praise of night and death-rebirth, is the way they speak to us of the very experience of creation: how, in the most rigorous solitude of this transcendent night, outside time and space, man finds himself at the heart of the work, in its elusive infinity. Maurice Blanchot tells us: "The work attracts those who devote themselves to it to the point where it is proof against impossibility. An experience which is properly nocturnal, which is that of the night itself."