The Société Radio-Canada asked me to compose this work for radio for the Prix Italia 1986. The commission was quite specific: I was to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of French production on the state radio network, using sound archives as basic materials.

I did research for over a month. From this immense collection, I extracted elements that I found to be evocative and which brought back fond memories, or which simply seduced me with their colour and musical value. My aim was to use these traces of the passage of time to create a palette of contrasting climates that would convey the formidable powers of radio sound, above and beyond the referential significance of the chosen materials. In addition to having inspired the form of the work, Franz Schubert’s Fantasia in F minor, op 103, for four-hand piano, is discreetly alluded to throughout the piece and permeates the whole with a certain melancholy.

Fantaisie was realized in 1986 at the composer’s studio and premiered in September of that year on Radio-Canada’s Cultural Network program Musique actuelle.

Premiere

• September 1986, Musique actuelle, Chaîne culturelle de Radio-Canada, Canada