To myself

This is like a children’s guessing game, with its tracks that branch out in strange ways, its tangled paths, its purposely distorted ambiguities, and its conscious efforts to confuse: a labyrinth. The objective is to work through all of this and figure out who is hiding. But this game is for adults.

Behind these fragments — drawn from the musical discourse of ten works and then reconstructed into a three-minute evocation of a decade — the voice makes itself heard only to disappear again, evident only long enough to remind us that the person who is hiding will remain hidden forever.

Qui est là? (Who’s There?) was a milestone work even back in 1990, a “hyperspace fly-over” of the work of the ten years between 1979 and 1989: Mais laisserons-nous mourir Arianna? (1979), Sous le regard d’un soleil noir (1981), Points de fuite (1982), … mourir un peu (1984), Drôles d’oiseaux (1985), Signé Dionysos (1986), Chiaroscuro (1987), Chroniques de la lumière (1989), Novars (1989), and Espace / Escape (1989).

— Francis Dhomont [English translation: Tom Carter, xi-90]

Qui est là? was realized at the composer’s studio in 1990 and premiered on November 2, 1990 during the Acousmonium concerts of the Montréal musiques actuelles / New Music America festival. Qui est là? was commissioned by empreintes DIGITALes.

Premiere

• November 2, 1990, Montréal musiques actuelles / New Music America, Acousmonium: Concert 6: Électro clips, Théâtre Les Loges, Montréal (Québec)