Pascal Dusapin

One way in which Dusapin stands out from other contemporary composers is through his selection of certain instruments and rejection of others. Unlike even Xenakis, he avoids the use of electronics and technology in his music.[12] Likewise, he has removed the use of percussion other than timpani from his works. Until recently, Dusapin also rejected the use of keyboard instruments, despite the fact that he plays the organ[10] and jazz piano.[13] As a possible reason for Dusapin's rejection of these instruments, Stoïnova suggests, "The scale and static timbre of the piano, as well as the noisy, uniform textures of percussion are incorporated with difficulty by Dusapin into his microtonal perspective which seems to define the very essence of his dynamic melodism."[14] Stoïnova, however, wrote this article four years before Dusapin completed the Trio Rombach (1997), for piano, violin or clarinet, and cello. This piano trio was the first work in which Dusapin incorporated piano,[13] and not until 2001 did he complete a piece for solo piano, Sept Études (1999–2001).

Dusapin's music is also marked by its microtonality, which is often achieved through the integration of micro-glissandi and micro-intervals (intervals of less than one semitone).[15] Dusapin combines both micro-intervals and regular intervals into melodic lines so that the listener never knows what to expect next. Even so, Dusapin manages to make his use of microtonality feel completely natural. As Stoïnova explains, "The micro-intervals and the micro-glissandi ... in such instrumental works as Inside (1980) for viola, Incisa (1982) for cello, and many other pieces are, in effect, completely integrated as different by entirely 'natural' components in extremely supple melodic progressions".[15] The listener is already familiar with the uniform division of the octave in equal intervals; Dusapin merely divides the octave by a less traditional number.

Dusapin rejects the hierarchical, binary forms of most European music, but neither is his music aleatory. Dusapin characterizes the European "hierarchical" form as thinking in terms of variations, so that certain parts are always of more importance than others.[16] Instead of composing in this way, Dusapin seems to compose measure by measure, deciding what he wants to happen next when he gets there.[17] This process slightly alludes to the chance-like aspect of aleatory music, but Dusapin's music is so precisely composed that it cannot truly be aleatoric. Stoïnova writes, "With regard to Dusapin’s music we can observe a principle of auto-organization and complexity in the compositional system through the integration or assimilation of aleatory disturbances."[18] In other words, Dusapin lets the music go where it will, often evoking aleatory idioms, while still notating everything and maintaining control of his music. He avoids repetition and rejects stability and redundancy in music, which is yet another distinguishing feature of his music.[19]

Perhaps the most prominent and unique element of Dusapin's music is its built-in tension, energy, and sense of movement. Indeed, in his article on Dusapin, Julian Anderson cites the "enclosing tensions" and "explosive flight" as the two extremes of Dusapin's early music and claims that these idioms are what make the composer's music so highly individual.[20] Stoïnova also emphasizes the energy that is present in Dusapin's earlier compositions, giving credit to Dusapin's use of extreme registers, flutter tongue, trills, micro-intervals, glissandi, multiphonics, rapid articulations, drastic dynamics, and continuous breathing.[21] These unique features make Dusapin's music incredibly intense and demanding on its performers. In fact, the intensity is such that Dusapin consciously makes pieces like Musique captive (1980) have short durations (in this case, three minutes), for by their ends the musicians and listeners alike are completely exhausted.[21]

Many of the characteristics discussed above are especially prevalent in Dusapin's earlier works, especially those from the 1980s. Beginning in the next decade, Dusapin's work moved more and more toward greater harmonic and melodic simplicity.[22] Paul Griffiths notes that Dusapin's works from the 1990s are more harmonically conceived than his previous music, and that they incorporate more folk traditions, including the use of drones and modes. He further suggests that Dusapin continued to simplify his music as he moved into the twenty-first century, and that while the composer still avoids diatonicism, he uses techniques like oscillating between two notes and constantly varying small patterns, which involve more repetition than his past music.[10]

Two of Dusapin's earlier works composed in the same year, Musique captive (1980) and Musique fugitive (1980), might be studied together in that they are both unstable and aim to avoid any sort of repetition. At the same time, however, the pieces go about achieving these goals in two very different ways. Musique captive is written for nine wind instruments (piccolo, oboe, soprano saxophone, bass clarinet, contrabass clarinet, contrabassoon, two trumpets, and bass trombone) and lasts just three minutes, for, as Stoïnova suggests, the tension and high demands on the performers are such that the piece could not last any longer.[21] Stoïnova further describes the piece as internally destroying itself, writing, "The musical ideas of this piece—tremolo textures, a rising chromatic figure, violent crescendi, an expanding mass of detail etc.—destroy each other or to be more exact annihilate each other."[25] Dusapin thus throws many musical ideas together, a concept that Pace relates to free jazz.[24] The resulting music is highly unstable and simply cannot endure longer than its three-minute duration. The piece was first performed in July 1981 in La Rochelle, France.

Musique fugitive, on the other hand, achieves its instability through musical "ruptures."[18] Written for string trio, the piece avoids the traditional process of statement and variation, thus breaking away from any sense of unity and continuity. Dusapin achieves this effect by stating one idea, then abruptly changing course through either sudden silence or the introduction of a new musical progression.[25] Premiered in Aix-en-Provence, France, in June 1980, Musique fugitive, Pugin claims, has become "virtually a repertoire piece in France."[26] The Arditti String Quartet recording of the piece can be heard on Spotify.[27]

La Rivière (1979) and L’Aven (1980–81) are two orchestral pieces based on ideas of nature that, according to Julian Anderson, show off the "more exuberant, violent side of Dusapin’s style."[20] Both pieces focus on characteristics of water and symbolize its fluidity and strength through music. The first piece opens with solo cello, which "spreads through" and "absorbs" the whole orchestra, as water would do.[28] Indeed, in this piece Dusapin aims to realize the "movement of changing speeds, of the strength of flow."[28] L’Aven, on the other hand, captures the image of water slowly dripping and opening a hollow in stone. A concerto for flute and orchestra, the work begins with the flute being just barely audible over the orchestra, but it gradually pushes its way through the orchestral texture until it is the prominent voice of the work.[12] Thus, the flute represents the dripping water, and the orchestra represents the stone. The flute plays without stop for ten minutes, always pushing against the orchestra and ultimately coming out on top.[28] Both pieces received their premiere in Metz, France: La Rivière in November 1979, and L’Aven in November 1983.

Niobé ou le Rocher de Sypile (1982) is a thirty-eight-minute work for twelve mixed voices, solo soprano (Niobé), and eight instruments (oboe doubling English horn, two clarinets [the second doubling bass clarinet], two bassoons [the second doubling contrabassoon],trumpet and two tenor trombones), with a neo-Latin text by Martine Irzenski. Irzenski's text is taken from fragments of Latin literary works and does not necessarily follow the chronology of the Greek myth of Niobe.[29] Dusapin himself classifies the work as a "staged oratorio", rather than an opera or piece of musical theatre, and in it he once again avoids repetition and continuity and seeks to freely make textural connections.[30] The solo soprano voice is pitted against the twelve voices of the mixed chorus, who serve a number of different purposes throughout the course of the work, sometimes extending the timbre of Niobé's voice, sometimes moving in relation to the text.[29] In his article on Dusapin, Anderson also highlights the variety of vocal techniques and textures used in the oratorio, including microtonal chords for the chorus and the monodic soprano line at the end of the work.[22] Through its non-linear text and multiple textural layers, 'Niobé ou le Rocher de Sypile' maintains the same sense of discontinuity as Dusapin's earlier chamber works. The work was first performed in Paris on 16 June 1984.

According to Ian Pace, Dusapin's first opera, Roméo et Juliette (1985–88) is the "pivotal work" in the composer's career, for it is in this work that he first "properly" combines his ideas of narrative to the theatrical realm.[31] Pugin views Dusapin's opera as a return to the "more fruitful" style of Niobé, and cites Dusapin's vocal pieces Mimi (1986–87), Il-Li-Ko (1987), and Anacoluthe (1987) as study pieces for the creation of his first opera, particularly for the setting of the French language.[12] Anderson, meanwhile, notes the greater amount of lyricism that exists in Dusapin's opera as compared to his earlier works.[22] All three authors seem to agree that the opera is a noteworthy point in Dusapin's compositional career.

The libretto, written by Olivier Cadiot, is divided into nine numbers: the first four dealing with events before the revolution, the final four involving events after the revolution, and the fifth and central number being the revolution itself.[31] This central movement is the only one played purely by the orchestra. The opera focuses not only on Roméo and Juliette, but also on their doubles, Roméo 2 and Juliette 2, who appear before the revolution and seem to symbolize "an expansion of their personalities."[31] The opera also involves a chorus that comments on the action and a vocal quartet that serves as an intermediary and teaches Roméo and Juliette revolutionary concepts.[31] Finally, there is the character of Bill, who teaches Roméo and Juliette to sing, but who himself only speaks until the eighth number, when he at last sings as well.[31] In the latter half of the work, the characters discuss the possibility of creating a real opera, only to discover the "impossibility of opera, the story and even language itself", and the music breaks down into microtonality and fragmentation.[31] The opera was premiered on 10 June 1989 in Montpellier, France.

His next major project was the large-scale orchestral cycle Seven Solos for Orchestra composed between 1992 and 2009. It consists of seven works that can be played independently but were from the start conceived as a whole.[32][33]

In the composer's own words:

In the early 1990s I wanted to get away from the running times of between ten and twenty minutes that are invariably associated with commissions for orchestra. Since no one was offering me commissions to produce longer symphonic forms I decided to bide my time. I dreamt of an extended, complex form comprising seven autonomous episodes regenerating themselves from within, fertilising other possibilities, and proliferating on the interstices left open ...”[32]

The cycle treats the orchestra as a large solo instrument[32][34] and is the closest Dusapin has come to traditional symphonic thinking.[32]

In May 2016, Alisa Weilerstein and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra premièred Outscape, Dusapin's second cello concerto, to positive critical reception.[35][36]

His most recent opera, Macbeth Underworld, premièred at La Monnaie in Brussels in September 2019.

• Inside, for viola (1980)
• Incisa, for cello (1982)
• If, for clarinet (1984)
• Item, for cello (1985)
• Itou, for bass clarinet (1985)
• Ici, for flute (1986)
• Iti, for violin (1987)
• Indeed, for trombone (1987)
• I Pesci, for flute (1989)
• In et Out, for double bass (1989)
• Invece, for cello (1991)
• Ipso, for clarinet (1994)
• Immer, for cello (1996)
• In nomine, for viola (2000)
• Sept études, for piano (1999–2001)
• Imago, for cello (2001)
• Memory, hommage crypté et monomodal à Ray Manzarek for organ (2008)
• Ictus, for bass clarinet (2008–2009)
• In Vivo, for solo violin (2015)

• Musique fugitive, for string trio (1980)
• Trois Instantanés, for 2 clarinets and 3 cellos (1980)
• Poco a poco (1986)
• Sly, for trombone quartet (1987)
• Laps, for clarinet and double bass (1988)
• Neuf Musiques pour «Le Fusil de chasse», for clarinet, trombone and cello (1989)
• String quartet n°2 Time Zones (1989)
• Attacca, pour 2 trumpets and timpani (1991)
• Stanze, for brass quintet (1991)
• Ohimé, for violin and viola, hommage for Besty Jolas (1992)
• String quartet n°1 (1982–1996)
• String quartet n°3 (1993)
• Ohé, for clarinet and cello (1996)
• String quartet n°4 (1997)
• Trio Rombach, for piano, violin or clarinet and cello (1997)
• String quartet n°5 (2004–2005)
• String quartet n°6 (2009), with orchestra
• String quartet n°7 (2009)
• Microgrammes, 7 pieces for string trio (2011)
• By the way, for clarinet and piano (2014)
• Slackline, for cello and piano (2015)
• Forma fluens, for violin and piano (2018)

• Souvenir du silence (1976)
• Le Bal (1978)
• Timée (1978)
• La Rivière, for orchestra (1979)
• Musique captive, for 9 wind instruments (1980)
• Tre Scalini, for orchestra (1981–1982)
• Fist (1982)
• Hop' (1983–1984)
• La Conversation (1984)
• Treize Pièces pour Flaubert (1985)
• Assaï, for orchestra (1985)
• Haro (1987)
• Coda (1992)
• Seven Solos for Orchestra (1992–2009)
  • Go, solo n°1 for orchestra (1992)
  • Extenso, solo n°2 for orchestra (1993–1994)
  • Apex, solo n° 3 for orchestra (1995)
  • Clam, solo n° 4 for orchestra (1997–1998)
  • Exeo, solo n° 5 for orchestra (2002)
  • Reverso, solo n°6 for orchestra (2005–2006)
  • Uncut, solo n°7 for orchestre (2009)
• Khôra, for string orchestra (1993)
• Loop, for 2 cello quartets (1996)
• Cascando (1997)
• Perelà Suite, for orchestra (2004)
• Morning in Long Island (2010)

• Flute
  • L'Aven, flute concerto (1980–1981)
  • Galim, 'Requies plena oblectationis', for flute and string orchestra (1998)
• Cello
  • Celo, cello concerto (1996)
  • Outscape, cello concerto (2016)
• Violin
  • Quad, 'In memoriam Gilles Deleuze', for violin and 15 musicians (1996)
  • Aufgang, violin concerto (2011–2012)
• Piano
  • A Quia, piano concerto (2002)
  • Jetzt Genau! concertino for piano and 6 instruments (2012)
• Other
  • Aria, clarinet concerto (1991)
  • Watt, trombone concerto (1994)
  • At Swim-Two-Birds, double concerto for violin and cello (2017)
  • Waves, for organ and orchestra (2019)

• Igitur (1977)
• Lumen (1977)
• L'Homme aux liens, for 2 sopranos and 3 violins (1978)
• Shin'gyo, for soprano and piccolo flute (1981)
• Niobé ou le rocher de Sypile (1982)
• To God, for soprano and clarinet (or saxophone soprano) (1985)
• Mimi for 2 women's voices and ensemble (1986–1987)
• Aks (1987)
• Red Rock, from «Roméo et Juliette» (1987)
• Anacoluthe (1987)
• For O., for 2 women's voices and 2 clarinets (1988)
• So Full of Shapes is Fancy, for soprano and bass clarinet (1990)
• Comoedia (1993)
• Canto, for soprano, clarinet and cello (1994)
• Two Walking, five pieces for two women's voices (1994)
• Dona Eis (1998)
• Momo (2002)
• Ô Berio, for soprano and 13 instruments (2006)
• O Mensch! (Inventaire raisonné de quelques passions Nietzschéennes), for baritone and piano (2008–2009)
• Beckett's Bones for soprano, clarinet and piano (2013)
• Wenn du dem Wind... (3 scènes de l’opéra Penthesilea) for mezzo-soprano and orchestra (2014)
• Wolken, for female voice and piano (2014)

• Roméo et Juliette (1985–1988)
• Medeamaterial (1990–1991)
• La Melancholia (1991)
• To Be Sung (1992–1993)
• Perelà, uomo di fumo (2001)
• Faustus, the Last Night (2003–2004)
• Passion (2009)
• Penthesilea (2015)
• Macbeth Underworld (2019)

• Semino (1985)
• Il-Li-Ko (1987)
• Granum sinapis (1992–1997)
• Umbrae mortis, for mixed choir (1997)
• Disputatio, for children's chorus, mixed choir, string orchestra, percussion and glass harmonica (2014)

• Amblard, Jacques. Pascal Dusapin, l’intonation ou le secret. Paris: Musica falsa Société de Presse, 2002.
• Anderson, Julian. "Dusapin, Pascal." In Contemporary Composers, edited by Brian Morton and Pamela Collins, 250–52. Chicago: St. James Press, 1992.
• Cazé, Antoine (2006). "Lyrismes". Sillages Critiques 8 (2006): 159–71 (8): 159–171. doi:10.4000/sillagescritiques.593. Retrieved 20 September 2013.
• Cazé, Antoine. "'Pas de Deux:’ Dusapin Sings/Stein to Be Sung." In Sound as Sense: Contemporary US Poetry &/In Music, edited by Michel Delville and Christine Pagnoulle, 141–53. New Comparative Poetics 11. Brussels, Belgium: Presses Interuniversitaires Européenes – Peter Lang, 2003.
• Cohen-Levinas, Danielle. "Composer n’est pas la musique." In Causeries sur la musique: Entretiens avec des compositeurs, edited by Danielle Cohen-Levinas, 203–50. Paris: L’Itinéraire, 1999.
• Grabócz, Márta. "Archetypes of Initiaion and Static Temporality in Contemporary Opera: Works of François-Bernard Mâche, Pascal Dusapin, and Gualtiero Dazzi." In Music and Narrative since 1900, edited by Michael L. Klein and Nicholas Reyland, 101–24. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2013.
• Stoïanova, I. "Pascal Dusapin: Febrile Music." Contemporary Music Review 8, no. 1 (1993): 183–96.