Vous l’Inaccessible

Vous l’Inaccessible is for soprano and electronics, and was inspired by the Guillaume de Machaut virelai “Douce Dame Jolie.” Machaut’s melody and text are presented in a variety of forms, as a chant, spoken word, and a direct quotation of the melody. As the piece unfolds, the voice becomes more free and independent of the original melody, creating a process of development followed by deconstruction and finally reconstruction into completely new material free from the original melody. The final spoken text is a modern text, related to the theme of unattainable love (like the Machaut text), but presented in modern French as opposed to Medieval French text of “Douce Dame Jolie.”