• Concert

Popular violin music in Remiremont, 1915

Using their own professional instruments or others made by the soldiers themselves, with texts and images projected onto a screen, Claude Ribouillault, Emmanuel Pariselle, Luc Weiss and their puppet give an emotional description of the resources used by soldiers to express the realities of their everyday lives. “It’s a fiddle!” is a show full of creativity, fun and irony, as if cocking a snook at the circumstances!

The concert will be held in the museum’s auditorium.

The event is free but online booking is required before Friday 17 June at 8pm.

Extracts from the concert Violon bidon ! performed by Claude Ribouillault and his band, at the Verdun Memorial Museum, 18 June 2016.

Listen
Marmites ! by Claude Ribouillault and his band (France Inter, “Le Grand Bain”, 4th August 2014).

This performance is one of the six concerts scheduled for 2016 as part of the “Verdun, des musiques pour une bataille” (Verdun, Music for a Battle) programme. To mark the reopening of the museum, this programme of concerts will share with audiences the often unexpected or forgotten musical dimension of the First World War. The programme includes music written in or about Verdun, some of it “high-brow”, some popular in style e.g. chamber music, musical theatre, cabaret and songs sung by the soldiers. The concerts will also pay homage to the German music that continued to inspire classical musicians and composers serving in the armed forces. Belgian, British and Australian composers who lost their lives at the Front will also be included through a solemn commemoration in the form of an organ recital at the end of the programme. The performers, all of them well known in France and internationally, are particularly committed to the commemoration of the Great War in five subject areas – a new look at Verdun’s musical heritage, popular songs and shows, remembrance, passing on skills and knowledge and, lastly, commemoration.