commission : Nouvel Ensemble Moderne and Percussions de Strasbourg
creation : 29.09.1993 at festival Musica de Strasbourg
duration : 15′
musicians : group (piccolo, bautbois, clarinet, bass clarinet, bassoon, horn, trumpet, trombone, two violins, viola, cello, double bass, piano, percussion) and six percussion instruments
partners : with the help of the CAC (Conseil de Arts du Canada)
The composer tells us that we are in the presence here of a “music of metamorphoses” and that, “this work evokes an awareness of human tragedy. The music is therefore both an actress and a spectator in that it proposes the evolution of the way we look at human tragedies at the same time as it evokes them, like an incessant back and forth between cause and effect, between the outside and the inside.
An inescapable journey, this “train of recklessness” (or unconsciousness), although later shaken by two “vertigoes”, will continue its course towards the abyss (“the train to hell”). The music thus follows an increasingly dramatic trajectory, until the final tragedy in which purity (innocence, beauty, childhood) is murdered”.
This “instrumental tragedy” is a work of remarkable intelligence and maturity. Here Gougeon demonstrates a skilful skill in marrying percussion instruments with other instruments, with the help of a writing of true technical skill. The lyricism and almost classical harmonic colouring associated with this composer are of course present, as in most of his other works.
Excerpt from the programme notes of the concert of May 10, 1995 written by Sophie Galaise.