The design for this composition was inspired by the first eight paragraphs of Combray, the first book of Remembrances of Things Past, by Marcel Proust.

Faced with this masterly work by Proust, the solution is to approach the work as if it were a translation from one language to another, without quoting the text directly.

With successive re-readings — a kind of travel through time to find the story’s present — we understand that sound objects weave the fibres of a memory stripped bare. Whether a quartet or a horse, a train or a small bell, each sound emanates directly from the sound environment that comes to life in the text. The paragraphs divide and give the work its form.

La robe nue [The Naked Dress] was realized in the Fall of 1995 at the composer’s studio. It was commissioned by Radio-Canada’s FM network and premiered on December 23, 1995 during the radio show Le son électrisé produced by Georges Nicholson on Radio-Canada’s FM network. This work was selected for the 23rd Bourges International Electroacoustic Music Competition (France, 1996).

Premiere

• December 23, 1995, Le son électrisé, Réseau FM de Radio-Canada, Canada