Often remembered for her film score to Eyes Wide Shut, which won her a Chicago Film Award and a Golden Globe nomination, Pook has worked with some of the world’s leading directors, musicians, artists and arts institutions - including Stanley Kubrick, Martin Scorsese, the Royal Opera House, BBC Proms, Andrew Motion, Peter Gabriel, Massive Attack and Laurie Anderson.
Pook has also written film score to Michael Radford’s The Merchant of Venice with Al Pacino, which featured the voice of countertenor Andreas Scholl and was nominated for a Classical Brit Award. Other notable film scores include Brick Lane directed by Sarah Gavron and a piece for the soundtrack to Gangs of New York directed by Martin Scorsese.
With a blossoming reputation as a composer of electro-acoustic works and music for the concert platform, Pook continues to celebrate the diversity of the human voice. Her first opera Ingerland was commissioned and produced by ROH2 for the Royal Opera House’s Linbury Studio in June 2010. The BBC Proms and The King's Singers commissioned to collaborate with the Poet Laureate Andrew Motion on a work entitled Mobile. Portraits in Absentia was commissioned by BBC Radio 3 and is a collage of sound, voice, music and words woven from the messages left on her answerphone. She has received critical acclaim for her song cycle Hearing Voices, which was premiered in December 2012 by the BBC Concert Orchestra and singer Melanie Pappenheim at the Queen Elizabeth Hall.
Pook graduated from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in 1983, where she studied the viola. She then embarked on a period of touring and recording with artists such as Peter Gabriel, Massive Attack, Laurie Anderson and PJ Harvey and as a member of the Communards.
She also tours extensively with The Jocelyn Pook Ensemble, performing repertoire from her albums and music from her film scores.
Pook won an Olivier Award for the National Theatre's production of St Joan, and for her music-theatre piece Speaking in Tunes she won a British Composer Award. She won a second British Composer Award for her soundtrack to DESH, which accompanies Akram Khan’s dance production of the same name. Pook has also composed scores for television shows and commercials, and was nominated for a BAFTA for Channel 4's The Government Inspector (Dir: Peter Kosminsky).
Pook has chaired and been a judge on various panels including the British Composer Awards, Ivor Novello Awards and BBC Proms Young Composers Competition.
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La Blanche Traversée
Jocelyn Pook Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Des larmes d'anges tombent
Je suis la blanche traversee
Celle qui touche sans ombre
Mon coeur bat a la vitesse de la nuit
Et mes yeux s'ouvrent comme des sons
Des larmes d'anges tombent
Je suis la blanche traversee
Celle qui bouge sans ombre
Je n'ai...
Je n'ai plus de fin
Je n'ai...
Je n'ai plus de retard
Je ne suis...
Je ne suis qu'un son
Celui...
Celui du regard
Au dessus des visages
Des larmes d'anges tombent
Je suis la blanche traversee
Celle qui vibre sans age
Jocelyn Pook's song La Blanche Traversée is a haunting and mysterious meditation on the human experience. The first verse evokes images of tears falling from angels above volcanoes, while the singer identifies herself as "the white crossing," someone who touches without casting a shadow. The second verse continues the theme of tears falling from angels, this time "above vertigo," while the singer reiterates her identity as the one who moves without casting a shadow. She claims to have no more end or delay, indicating a sense of being freed from the constraints of time, and identifies herself as only a sound, a vibration. In the final verse, she speaks of tears falling from angels above faces, while identifying herself as the one who vibrates without age.
The song is full of interesting and enigmatic elements, including the repeated emphasis on tears falling from angels. The image of the "white crossing" is also intriguing, suggesting a liminal state or fluid identity. The reference to the speed of night in the first verse adds to the otherworldly atmosphere of the song, as does the idea of being only a sound or vibration. The sense of freedom from time in the song is also notable, as is the use of the word "vertigo" to describe a location above which tears fall. All of these elements contribute to the overall mood of the song, which is both atmospheric and deeply introspective.
Line by Line Meaning
Au dessus des volcans
Above the volcanoes
Des larmes d'anges tombent
Tears of angels fall
Je suis la blanche traversee
I am the white traverse
Celle qui touche sans ombre
The one who touches without shadow
Mon coeur bat a la vitesse de la nuit
My heart beats at the speed of the night
Et mes yeux s'ouvrent comme des sons
And my eyes open like sounds
Au dessus des vertiges
Above the vertigo
Des larmes d'anges tombent
Tears of angels fall
Je suis la blanche traversee
I am the white traverse
Celle qui bouge sans ombre
The one who moves without shadow
Je n'ai...
I have no...
Je n'ai plus de fin
I no longer have an end
Je n'ai...
I have no...
Je n'ai plus de retard
I no longer have a delay
Je ne suis...
I am not...
Je ne suis qu'un son
I am only a sound
Celui...
The one...
Celui du regard
The one of the gaze
Au dessus des visages
Above the faces
Des larmes d'anges tombent
Tears of angels fall
Je suis la blanche traversee
I am the white traverse
Celle qui vibre sans age
The one who vibrates without age
Writer(s): H. Brough, J. Pook Copyright: G. Schirmer Inc. O/B/o Chester Music Ltd.
Contributed by Alyssa H. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
Martin Trebuch
on Thousand Year Dream
could it be "blue venom teardrops"?