To Annette Vande Gorne

These “Chronicles” are an impressionistic sonic version of visual elements — an undoubtedly metaphorical act —, a personal daydream of light based on a concept by Montréal visual artist Luc Courchesne.

An evocation of luminous phenomena, natural rays or multiple artifacts, Chroniques de la lumière (Chronicles of Light) is comprised of three movements: Miroitements (Shimmers), Artifices, Météores (Meteors) or adagio, allegro and presto-finale.

An evolution from slow to fast, calm to agitated, piano to forte, static to mobile, simple to complex.

— Francis Dhomont [English translation: François Couture, viii-06]

Chroniques de la lumière [Chronicles of Light] was realized at the composer’s studio and premiered on April 26, 1989 at the Doppler Concert of the Société de musique contemporaine du Québec (SMCQ), at the Spectrum in Montréal. The proportions of Météores went through slight modifications in 2005; that particular movement is thus a new version. Chroniques de la lumière was first released on the Halogènes compact disc produced by the Université de Montréal on the UMMUS-Actuelles label (UMM C 101). Météores (1989) was released by empreintes DIGITALes in 1991 on Mouvances~Métaphores (IMED 9107/08), and in 1996 on Les dérives du signe (IMED 9608). Miroitements was selected by the 1995 International Computer Music Conference (ICMC95) in Banff (Canada); Artifices was selected by the 1994 International Computer Music Conference (ICMC94) in Aarhus (Denmark); Météores (1989) was selected by the International Society for Contemporary Music (ISCM) for the 1990 World Music Days in Oslo (Norway), and by the 1993 International Computer Music Conference (ICMC ’93) in Tokyo (Japan). Many of the sounds were realized at Studio 123 and with the SYTER real-time sound synthesis system of the Ina-GRM (Paris, France). Special thanks to Yann Geslin, Daniel Teruggi and the late Bénédict Mailliard for their invaluable advice. Chroniques de la lumière was commissioned by the SMCQ and realized with support from the Canada Council for the Arts (CCA).

Preparation

• Studio 123 — Groupe de recherches musicales – Institut national de l’audiovisuel (Ina-GRM), Paris (France)
• Studio SYTER — Groupe de recherches musicales – Institut national de l’audiovisuel (Ina-GRM), Paris (France)

Composition

• 1989, Personal studio, Montréal (Québec)

Revision

• 2005, Personal studio, Montréal (Québec)