Additional Information
After the release of the recording of François Dompierre’s The Four Seasons of Quebec, and on the eve of a tour that will present this new work alongside its cousins, daughters of Vivaldi and Piazzolla, throughout Quebec and Europe, I had the chance to discuss with the composer what inspired him in this adventure.
ALBUM REVIEW OF THE FOUR SEASONS OF QUEBEC UNDER THE ATMA LABEL
PanM360: When you were contacted and asked if you would be interested in writing your version of the Four Seasons, how did you react?
François Dompierre: Exactly as it happened with the Requiem, it was Francis Choinière who called me and proposed this project. He said to me, “Listen, I have Vivaldi’s Four Seasons and Piazzolla’s The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires on the program, and it would be great to have the Four Seasons of Quebec.”
So, I said, “Okay, I’m going to write this.” And then, I got to work right away. I patched up my themes and then I started.
PanM360: Was it long?
François Dompierre: No, I did that in four months, one season per month. Actually, I started with the last movement and that took me four days. The others were a bit more complicated.
PanM360: Why?
François Dompierre: It was perhaps the form. It’s often construction issues that cause delays. I had themes that I had worked on, and then I wanted to arrange them properly, to my liking, with reprises and all that. It was perhaps simpler for me in the fourth movement.
I don’t know, to be honest. Sometimes, we don’t really know why it takes less time or more time, but that’s how it is.
PanM360: Did you immediately decide on a fusion with echoes of folklore and ancient dances?
François Dompierre: It made perfect sense to me, because when you think about it, Vivaldi also used popular elements, based on themes that were recurrent at the time. In Piazzolla’s case, it’s even more obvious. He went straight into tango. I said to myself, what are our roots? Our roots are not rock, they are not pop songs. Our roots are the dances that come from the last century. I took that and adapted it and I imagined it for a classical orchestra, a string orchestra in the form of a concerto in four movements.
PanM360: Was it also your choice to adopt the solo violin/orchestra format, like Vivaldi?
François Dompierre: I made this choice. But I was also somewhat constrained by what Francis Choinière was asking of me, because his orchestra, the one for the tour for which the work was commissioned, is a string orchestra with a soloist.
It was also obvious, in the context of the seasons of Quebec, to do a bit like Vivaldi had done. I even took the resemblance further by writing four little poems just like Vivaldi had done.
PanM360: What is your creative routine?
François Dompierre: I pretty much always proceed in the same way. I start by finding themes, finding voices, finding a setting, and I often jot them down at the table. I jot down things that come to me, often while walking on the street, I pull them out, I note them down, and then I return to the table, I note them down, and then at some point, I play those themes a bit on the piano, and that’s when I develop them. At some point, I find a continuity, and then I go to the computer and write. I start by writing a structure on two staves, sometimes three staves, and there I try to have the most precise structure possible. Then, I take this structure, and I start again, re-orchestrating while correcting.
PanM360: How does it feel to be the one who wrote the Quebec version of “The Four Seasons“?
François Dompierre: For me, it’s a work like any other; first of all, I consider it a popular work, that is to say, inspired by popular traditions. It was a pleasure for me to write it, I don’t have a big head about having done this compared to other composers, because there have been others besides Vivaldi. There was Piazzolla, as you said, there was Richter and a bunch of others. It’s an idea from Francis Choinière, by the way, I emphasise. Especially since he is taking this work on tour everywhere, there must be about forty concerts being held here and there, in Toronto, here in Quebec at a few places, in Europe as well, in Bordeaux, in Paris…
PanM360: It’s rare for a living composer to see their music performed on such a grand scale…
François Dompierre: It’s a great privilege and I appreciate it a lot. I am very happy to be a composer whose works are performed. We write for that, we certainly don’t write for the money, because nowadays royalties are dwindling, as you know. I made my career differently, by writing commercial music. I’m happy with that too, it allowed me to live and it allows me to write this now on my own and with pleasure, that’s it.
PanM 360: You probably wrote the first Requiem in Quebec. This time it is the Four Seasons. Is there something else you dream of writing in the not-too-distant future?
François Dompierre: I have the desire to write an important, large-scale symphonic work. A symphony, a big symphony, something like that. I am working on it, vaguely, and I might have news for you in a few months, we don’t know.
PanM 360: Thank you for this interview.
La grande tournée commence dès ce soir à la Maison symphonique de Montréal.
