Meynaud - Chamber Music

"All music is song." In Michel Meynaud's philosophy of music, singing is musical expression in it's natural state, an archetype of human presence. His works are permeated with melos. This affinity with song can be heard primarily in his choice of instruments for the pieces: a preference for instruments such as the violoncello and the double bass, which radiate sound "as if it is resonating out of the body". Meynaud also has a foible for solo compositions, in which the interpreter is "alone with his instrument, the notes and the music" and allowed to experience the freedom of isolation. However, Meynaud does not reduce the song to a simple Cantabile, but extends this notion to all facets of vocal articulation. The same applies to his instrumental music, where he intonates pre-verbal stammering, introverted murmuring and other affects by transforming them into sound: "comme un cri" stated in a recital direction which marked the climax of his piece Les Points d'Orgue de la Saint-Jean. These works are not only in the broadest sense of the word, singable, but also eloquent and dramatic.