Yves Daoust

Anecdotes collects five works by Yves Daoust composed between 1979 and 1991, all drawing on the repertoire of Western classical music. Each one “stages” a moment of music history through a particular instrument, and the four movements of Suite baroque are spread across the disc between the longer pieces.

Three works for solo performer and tape explore solitude, set against the sounds of daily life. In Petite musique sentimentale (1984), played by Jacques Drouin, piano chords break through Montréal street traffic and weather reports. Adagio (1986) builds its flute part from 192 excerpts of the virtuoso flute repertoire, crossed with Mozart's Quartet K 285 and a radio interview with its performer, Lise Daoust. L'Entrevue (1991), fourth in the cycle and written for Joseph Petric, turns inward: the tape uses only the accordionist's speaking voice, while he plays quotations from Bach's English Suites and stock phrases of the accordion repertoire.

Suite baroque (1989) was commissioned by the harpsichordist and actress Catherine Perrin for her performance Ni terrible, ni simple, its movements drawing on Frescobaldi, Rameau and Couperin. Quatuor (1979) reshapes string quartet sounds with analog studio techniques, with Beethoven's Große Fuge in mind. First a soundtrack for an animated film at the National Film Board, it won first prize in the electroacoustic category at Bourges in 1980. A letter to the composer by Denis Gougeon opens the booklet.

Born in Longueuil, Québec, in 1946, Daoust studied in Montréal and with Gilbert Amy in Paris, then trained at the GMEB in Bourges from 1973 to 1975. He worked as a sound designer at the NFB, taught electroacoustic composition at the conservatories of Québec City and Montréal, and helped found ACREQ in 1978.

CD in jewel case, empreintes DIGITALes IMED 9106, 1991.