Description
Godefroid Nuit Etoilée (Starry Night)
When you see this first page of music, you may instinctively think “oh no…”, because we harpists shy away from repeated chords that look very pianistic. But here, we must trust Godefroid, who knows very well the difference between the two instruments he mastered, and gives us a grand lesson in legato playing. One may think about the beautiful phrase of “the ark of the universe”. What is more inspiring than a sky full of blinking stars, to which we can attach our dreams, or empty our minds, as if Kronos was weighing on us to remind us that timelessness has its equivalence in space. And we are part of it, inseparably…
From a compositional point of view, it is remarkable how much Godefroid is able to achieve with so little variety in harmony in the key of C-flat Major, the harp’s home key or resting point, filling every move to a new chord filled with meaning and connection. The few pedal changes that occur along the way become our stepping stones toward the realm of sacred wonder.
-Dominique Piana
