The title of the work is also the name of a centuries-old city in Uzbekistan, which is also mentioned in a tale of Marco Polo's travels. The work bears the subtitle "Love song", described by Vivier als "relics" of the death rite. Composer's notes: "Bouchara is meant to be a long love song. The thread that colours the melody is produced with the addition of fundamental frequencies from that melody, thus allowing for a system of complex spectrums that remain consistent. By using this technique the composer can compose his melody very freely all the while creating a natural framework that also develops, albeit very independently from the melody. Thus, the degree of roughness of the sonorous material depends directly upon the fundamentals. The entire text is in an invented language, a language of love, an eternally-repeated story. - Claude Vivier -