Carnet de Venise

Pierre Henry’s Carnet de Venise in his own fashion recreates the soundscape of the City of Doges, juxtaposed with the shifting harmonies of Monteverdi madrigals. His use of source material, like the sound of splashing fountains, children’s voices, the ringing of bells, the rubbing of mooring cables, that he collected on site (from Torcello to the Old Ghetto, with stops in San Marco or Giudecca), then manipulated and edited together, demonstrates the bold poetic language of this pioneer of musique concrète. A work that remained unpublished for 17 years has its first release ever to mark the reconstruction of the composer’s recording studio, which is now housed at Paris’ Musée de la musique.