Le Voyage - Pierre Henry

 

Le Voyage

Le Voyage

Pierre Henry (b. 1927)

An Electronic Score based on The Tibetan Book Of The Dead

A Panorama of Experimental Music 

Volume 2

Photo by Ferdinand Boesch 

Cover Design by Rolf Bruderer

Mercury STEREO SR90482

1968

From the back cover: Pierre Henry is undoubtedly the most important com- poser of tape-music in France today. Born in 1927, he studied at the Paris Conservatory under Nadia Boulanger and Messiaen, and he was the first "conventional" composer to become interested in the possibilities of -electroacoustics. With Pierre Schaeffer, Henry was a charter member of the "Groupe de Recherches de Musique Concrète," which was established in 1948 under the auspices of Radiodiffusion- Télévision Française (R.T.F.). The term "musique concrète" was coined by Schaeffer to describe the music that he and Henry were creating from natural sources; such sounds as industrial and traffic noises, sounds of nature, sounds produced by musical instruments and the human voice, etc., were tape-recorded and then altered by re-recording them backwards, through filters, at different speeds, with echo effects, and so on. While Henry and Schaeffer were producing their first experimental works, the West German Radio founded a similar research studio in Cologne. This studio differed from that of the R.T.F. in that sinetone generators were installed to produce "sinusoidal" sound – i.e., pure tones, without any overtones. This variety of tape-music, employed by such composers as Eimert and Stockhausen, became known simply as "electronic music."

By 1958, when Henry left the R.T.F. to set up his own studio (the Studio Apsome), the terms "musique con- crète" and "electronic music" were beginning to fuse, as electronically produced sounds were being mixed in various ways with "concrète" sounds both in France. and Germany and in the new Italian and American studios.

In 1955 Henry met Maurice Bejart, a choreographer who was using "musique concrète" to accompany the experimental ballets he created. Encouraged by Bejart, Henry composed for him "Le Voyage" (The Voyage), based on The Tibetan Book of the Dead. The work was first heard on April 15, 1962, in Cologne; but Henry produced another version in the church of St. Julian-le-Pauvre in Paris on June 25, 1963, and it is the second version that we hear on this recording.

The Tibetan Book of the Dead, which first appeared in English in 1927, is used in Tibet as a breviary, to be read or recited on the occasion of death to help the dying man concentrate on the experience he is about to undergo, and to give him instruction in the cycle of events after death which leads either to liberation or reincarnation. In highly symbolic language, the deadman's spirit is told what to expect in each of the three stages between death and rebirth. The first stage describes the psychic happenings at the moment of death; the second stage describes the dream-state which follows and the "karmic" illusions which occur; and the third step describes the beginnings of pre-natal feelings. 

Henry, in his aural interpretation, has bracketed these three stages with "Breath 1" – the last breath of the dying man – and "Breath 2" – the first breath of the reincarnated spirit. He divides the three stages between death and rebirth as follows: "After Death 1 and 2" (stage one); "Peaceful and Wrathful Deities" (stage two); and "The Coupling" (stage three). It is as if we die with the man and accompany him on his journey through a strange icy world which is in turn hypnotic, bewildering and terrifying. As soon as the threshold of death is crossed, the sounds of this world cease, and the unfamiliarity of another world can only be conveyed by the use of the infinite possibilities of electronic sound.

Breath 1

Hearing is perhaps the last faculty to remain. The ears of the dying man are filled with the final clamorings of earthly life: thousands of whispering voices, motor cars, marine trumpets, torture applied to the teeth, the hands, the sudden agony of the radio. And a wind, a wind that comes nearer, and which he recognizes as the sound of his own breathing. By his side is the lama, the priest, or the friend. Then comes the slow cessation of breathing.

After Death 1

At this moment the Clear Light appears, which, accord- ing to the Tibetan Book of the Dead, if immediately recognized liberates the spirit from the cycle of reincarnation. Helpless, the spirit strives to attain it. The strivings become weaker, and black clouds surge around him, blind him, and slowly engulf him in darkness.

After Death 2

In a half-dream, he sees his relatives, his friends, his house. He rushes forward, crying out and pleading, and dashes himself against an invisible wall. As sounds and lights surround him he becomes aware of the other world. Strange reverberations strike terror into him. Alarming shapes seem to want to devour him. He is brushed against by shrill-voiced spirits. The wind of karma carries him away and drives him on towards sheer precipices. Violent flashes cause him to lose his reason.

Peaceful Deities

However, along the wayside the gods of light and of wisdom smile on him and await his coming. Paralyzed with abject terror the spirit proceeds through a series of visions which are creations of his own imagination.

Wrathful Deities

Even the awful goddesses of wrath conceal behind their terrifying cries a call to ultimate liberation.

The Coupling

When he has become a complete wreck, when he has refused all opportunities of escape from the wheel of life and death, the spirit is condemned to be reborn. The wind of the karma drives him towards the doors of six lokas, or wombs, the color of each of which indicates a state of spiritual life on earth. Colossal forms rise up in the act of coupling. Male and female beings surround him. An irresistible force draws him. The atmosphere becomes hostile. Finally, he throws himself into the loka which corresponds to his desire for life. Male and female come together. The doors close.

Breath 2

The ear once again perceives the sharp wind of reality. The spirit rediscovers the hostile and hard world. Breath takes possession again of flesh and blood. The memory vanishes.

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The following excerpts from The Tibetan Book of the Dead* would be read while the spirit is undergoing the various stages described above:

Breath 1. "O nobly-born, the time hath now come for thee to seek the Path. Thy breathing is about to cease. Thy guru hath set thee face to face before with the Clear Light; and now thou art about to experience it in its Reality in the Bardo state, wherein all things are like the void and cloudless sky, and the naked, spotless intellect is like unto a transparent vacuum without circumference or center."

After Death 1. "O nobly-born, listen. Now thou art experiencing the Radiance of the Clear Light of Pure Light. Recognize it. Thine own consciousness, not formed into anything, in reality void, and the intellect, shining and blissful, – these two, – are inseparable."

After Death 2. "Thou seest thy relatives and speakest to them, but receivest no reply. Then, seeing them and thy family weeping, thou thinkest, I am dead! What shall I do?' and feelest great misery, just like a fish cast out of water on red-hot embers. O nobly-born, when thou art driven by the ever-moving wind of karma, thine intellect, having no object upon which to rest, will be like a feather tossed about by the wind, riding on the horse of breath. Ceaselessly and involuntarily wilt thou be wandering about."

Peaceful Deities. "O nobly-born, five-colored radiances, which are the purified propensities, vibrating and dazzling like colored threads, flashing, radiant, and transparent, glorious and awe-inspiring, will issue from the hearts of the five chief Knowledge - Holding Deities and strike against thy heart, so bright that the eye cannot bear to look upon them."

Wrathful Deities. "O nobly-born, on the outer Circle of these Wrathful Deities, Herukas, the twenty-eight various headed mighty goddesses, bearing various weapons, issuing from within thine own brain, will come to shine upon thee. Fear that not."

The Coupling. "The visions of males and females in union will appear. If at that time, one entereth into the womb through the feelings of attachment and repulsion, one may be born either as a horse, a fowl, a dog, or a human being. O nobly-born, in whatever continent or place thou art to be born, the signs of that birthplace will shine upon thee then."

Copyright 1927 by W. Y. Evans-Wentz. Quoted with the permission of The Board of Trustees of The Leland Stanford Junior University.

Breath 1

After Death 1

After Death 2

Peaceful Deities

Wrathful Deities

The Coupling

Breath 2