Program note

“No hay caminos, hay que caminar” [there are no walkways, just walking] is what composer Luigi Nono used to say, paraphrasing a text encountered on a convent wall in Toledo. As a creator, an artisan, as anyone going their own way, the journey often takes a winding route. The artist takes unknown avenues, must at times backtrack, and even occasionally acknowledge having gone the wrong way. Yet this unpredictable path is also an opportunity for unexpected discoveries. It is in this spirit that Dériver was composed.

In music, these ideas can be expressed through the notion of directionality of sonic materials. This concept fueled my research, leading to the development of the more personal idea of musical cinematism. This notion deals with perceptible dynamic forces in music. Practically-speaking, these principles can give the impression of advancing, backing up (accelerating or slowing down), even spinning around. This is also what certain mimetisms in music are based on (for example, in his orchestral work Jeux (danced poem), Claude Debussy uses the imagined arc of tennis ball as a model for writing one part of the work’s materials). All these reflections led to just as many poetic conclusions for composing the musical ideas that make up Dériver.

I would like to thank Ensemble Paramirabo for its commitment to the premiere of this work, and especially Daniel Anez, to whom the piece is dedicated.

- Gabriel Dufour-Laperrière