Caroline Charrière

I Am Ready To Go

Caroline Charriere felt at home in the world of the American poet Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) and it is not by coincidence. Writing poems in secret was for Emily Dickinson, who lived in a strict puritan environment, an escape, a space of freedom where everything could be said ... without saying it.

For Caroline Charriere, composing also represented a space of freedom, of inner freedom. Emily Dickinson lived physically recluse, in her family house. Through the newspapers, she kept abreast of the world, then capturing like no other in her poems the thousand facets of her time, torn between tradition and progress. Bold metaphors and original rhymes put her at the forefront of English-language poetry.
In her lifetime, only ten of her 1,800 poems were published, and anonymously. Today, she is considered one of the greatest poets of the 19th century. Her poems were an essential source of inspiration for Caroline Charrière, who set fourteen of them to music, including three for instrumental ensembles. She found in Emily Dickinson a kindred spirit, sharing with her a detached vision of the world, this kinship manifesting itself in the perfect fusion between words and music.

Death is a recurring theme in the work of Caroline Charriere. In I am ready to go, death has lost all disturbing aspects. It is a self-determined departure, sung under the indication Happy at the beginning of the score. An inexorable rhythm and tempo, underlined from bar 10 by an undulating motive typical of Caroline Charriere's writing, sung by the tenors, leads the protagonist to the conclusion that the life lived was good, but not fulfilled; it is thus without regret - a handwritten indication of the composer at bar 57 - that we will leave.

Yes, the character of I am ready to go is joyful. Skillful rhythmic progressions and a masterly interweaving of word and music lead us from a positive presentiment to an apotheosis freed from the constraints of earthly existence, luminous.

I am ready to go is one of three pieces for mixed a cappella choir written in 2007 by Caroline Charrière on poems by Emily Dickinson. The Spider was also published by Editions Bim, while Flowers was published by Labatiaz (EMB 2653).

Irène Minder-Jeanneret