“We are transient beings, nomads always on the move. As we advance, we clear our paths before us, paths that are often twisted, fragile, and improbable, like ice bridges, well-trodden paths, passages, animal tracks and trails, clearings.”

Every work of art presents an enigma; that’s how we recognize it.

My works emerge in inexplicable ways: as questions for the ear. I grope my way along through unfamiliar terrain, only to discover at the end of the journey that I’m always following the same path.

Along the way, I come to accept my “naive” sketches, surprised each time to discover that all I have to do is humbly welcome what is flowing out of me, and trust that this thin thread will lead me somewhere.

For Aboiteaux, a 12-tone theme emerged and, rather than seeking to showcase the brilliant and inventive soloists of the marvellous Ensemble SuperMusique at all costs, I preferred to only use this tone row to generate some twenty chorales featuring from two to nine voices. (A chorale is a composition in which everyone sings the same rhythm, each equal voice blending into the whole.) These chorales are alternated with three dances.

The word “aboiteau” came to me as I was waking from a dream. It wasn’t so much its reference to water that inspired me, as I’ve already touched on these notions in Canot-camping and Résistances, but rather the memory of the narrow trail that winds along the St. Lawrence River between Saint-André-de-Kamouraska and La Pocatière.

I thought about the improbable paths we travel, the precariousness of our passage on Earth, our evanescence.

I composed Aboiteaux during the winter of 2020–21, in the midst of the Covid lockdown, isolated in a Laurentian cabin with a magnificent view of a snow-covered lake and a beautiful mountain. The only marks I saw in the snow all winter were my own ski tracks left during an overly daring lake crossing. Like many people, I was stunned, even terrified, by the pandemic and the cancellation of all cultural events. I felt as if I were in chains, deprived of this invigorating and stimulating contact with my musician friends and an audience. My work lost all meaning without my community.

I dreamed of escape routes, fragile paths, like my own tracks in the snow. I started thinking about my community: those who need music to live. A community reunited at last, singing with one voice as it searches for the way out.

Ensemble… Together… these are the keywords.

— Jean Derome [English translation: Isaiah Ceccarelli, xi-23]

Premiere

• May 23, 2021, FIMAV 2021: Le fleuve, Salle A — Colisée Desjardins, Victoriaville (Québec)