This work sets Paul Verlaine’s poignant poem “Le ciel est par-dessus le toit” (1895), a reflection of longing, simplicity, and the fragile beauty of existence. Verlaine wrote the text while imprisoned, gazing at a fragment of sky and recalling a life that felt distant yet achingly close. Scored for flute, soprano, marimba, piano, and cello, the piece creates an intimate and translucent sound world that mirrors the poem’s delicate imagery: the vastness of the sky, the quiet of the garden, the distant hum of bells. The marimba’s resonances evoke tolling chimes; the flute and cello trace fleeting breezes; the piano anchors moments of memory and loss. Throughout, the music shifts between stillness and subtle motion, as if breathing with Verlaine’s verses—contemplating how the simplest things can feel infinitely far when seen through the lens of confinement.
