The Music
Piano-Soleil, Denis Gougeon
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Denis Gougeon's Piano-Soleil is part of a larger cycle inspired by the solar system, Six thèmes solaires, commissioned in 1992 for the Canadian Music Competition's Stepping Stones/Tremplin International. | ||||||
| Gougeon assigned a planet to each instrument participating in the competition, composed to showcase the virtuoso technique and musical sensitivity of the individual performers.The piano, with its central role in Western music, was given the sun. This powerful work invokes the sun in all its searing heat and blinding light, with brilliant passagework that suggests the sudden bursts of solar flares, and delicate pianissimos reminiscent of shimmering heat waves. | |||||||
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DENIS GOUGEON completed a master's degree in composition under Serge Garant at the Faculty of Music of the University of Montreal. Pursuing a very active career as a composer, he has received numerous commissions from ensembles and performers throughout Canada, such as the Vancouver New Music Society, the Répercussion ensemble, Magnetic Band in Vancouver, soprano Marie-Danielle Parent and the Orchestre Métropolitain, the Société de Musique Contemporaine du Québec, the Association des Orchestres de Jeunes du Québec, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, flutist Lise Daoust, Ondes Martenot performer Jean Laurendeau, the Rencontres Musicales de Sorèze (France), the Esprit Orchestra in Toronto, the Canadian Chamber Players, the Canadian Music Competitions, New Music America, SDRS Culture and the Corporation of the Montreal 350th anniversary celebrations, the National Arts Centre Orchestra in Ottawa, the Nouvel Ensemble Moderne and the Percussion de Strasbourg, the Ensemble Clavivent, etc. | ||||||
One of the leading composers of his generation, Denis Gougeon is also among the few in Canada who devote themselves entirely to composition. At once accessible, dynamic, forceful and highly melodic, his music has been very well received by the public and the press in North and South America as well as in Europe. Denis Gougeon is particularly fond of writing with performers whom he considers marvellous "ambassadors".
