Tribute to Leduc, Borduas and Riopelle (2012)

An inspiring visit of the exhibit Leduc, Borduas et le paysage de Saint-Hilaire, presented in 2005 by the Musée des beaux-arts de Mont-Saint-Hilaire, incited a desire to compose works paying hommage to these two painters as well as to Riopelle. The three artists share a student-teacher relationship and span more than a century of pictorial history in Quebec. 

L’heure mauve crosses rhythmic pulsation with the vibration of open strings (that is without fingering), evoking an ecstatic feeling caused by light and its movement through the foliage of Mont Saint-Hilaire, which Leduc so loved. Or is it, in the distance, the church bell tower, decorated by its colours, that we hear resonate? 

Projections libérantes begins with the sound of the musicians’ breathing through the mouthpiece of their instrument. One hardly perceives the change of this steam which condenses into multiple sounds (“broken” and trembling sounds), a similar transition to the journey of “Borduas, who was the first to recognize himself in total darkness and to assume his true nakedness” (Pierre Vadeboncœur). The music gradually reveals itself throughout the work until it explodes with a crash at the very end. 

Icebergs et Soleil de minuit — Quatuor en blanc presents a series of contrasting sections. The work, however, remains bound by the continuous use of natural harmonics (strings lightly touched, rather than pressed), whose shrill timbre, pure and “white”, elicits the cold and ice references in Riopelle’s Iceberg series.

Beyond these aspects, by their suggested relationship with time, the three works beckon contemplation. The precedence of sound over the musical reflects my desire to directly portray nature.