VINGT-QUATRE PRELUDES (no. 74) Playing time: approx.

42’
! Publisher: Jobert, 1974.
‘I’ve always considered the piano a mediator instrument between the performer
and a kind of sound magic that can exist (or not: even with great pianists there are
evenings “with” and evenings “without”). I’ve tried to capture sound fragments
that are imbued with this magic and I waited for them a long time: I spent twenty
years imagining the Preludes and reaching the decision to write them.’
‘These Preludes were meant as a tribute to Chopin; moreover they end on the
low D that ends his own Preludes. I think they are fairly close to Chopin by a
certain conception of the law of contrasts and above all by the fact of seeking to
express in a very few seconds something that has the force of a trajectory
achieved.’
‘They are written to be played as a whole. In fact, this is a work in 24
fragments—and that’s somewhat the case with Chopin, too. There are
undeveloped blocs of music, which pass a bit like shadows, which sparkle... Each
one makes its way towards the next.’
‘I intentionally proceed by a stained-glass window procedure, by assembled
fragments, a bit in the style of certain works by Debussy like the Étude “pour les
agréments”, and assembled in a way to bring out their affinities and contrasts,
this creating an architecture, a necessity more biological than constructive in the
sense understood by classical musicians.’

DOUZE ÉTUDES D’INTERPRÉTATION (no. 88) (Initial title: Six Études

d’interprétation) Playing time: 25’
Book I: Études I-VI
I-Cadences libres; II-Mouvements parallèles; III-Agrégats sonores; IV-Main
gauche seule (‘in memoriam Maurice Ravel’); V-Quintes; VI-Troisième pédale
! Publisher: Jobert, 1984.
‘The aim of these Études is to complete the knowledge of piano technique but,
above all, as always, to make music with this sort of stimulant that is the
limitation to a given interval or a given aspect.’
‘As a writing rule, I took many aspects of piano technique that Debussy did not
tackle. He wrote etudes for fourths, chromatic degrees, for the four fingers, etc.
So I filled in the gaps he left.’

DOUZE ÉTUDES D’INTERPRÉTATION (no. 93) Playing time: 23’

Book II: Études VII-XII (Études VII-X for solo piano; Études XI and XII for
piano and percussion)
VII-Septièmes; VIII-Secondes; IX-Contrepoints libres; X-Neuvièmes
! Publisher: Jobert, 1985.
‘My dream would be to do for pianists what Chopin’s Nocturnes or Mazurkas did
for me: establish a dialogue and create a solitude, because when one questions
music face to face, it reveals inner spaces that one does not often visit. That has
nothing to do with the concert.’
‘Etudes are interesting things to write because they impose an external rule. For
example, if you write, as I did, an etude for the ninths or the seconds, you are

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