Détours
for solo piano
Program Note – Détours
The music begins in bold harmonies emphatic in their dissonance. Immediately following this opening theme the work departs on a set of fifteen variations, or ‘detours’, each flowing continuously into the next without pause.
Traveling between points of extremity, at times the textures are delicate and transparent; other surfaces are solid and resilient; some moments are fleeting and short-lived while others are expansive and widespread. At the center of the work the music calms itself into quiet serenity reflecting on what has already occurred. After this respite the journey continues its course, each variation building upon the next.
As the rhythm gains momentum so too does the dissonance that defines much the work. When the fifteenth and final variation is reached—the recapitulation of the opening theme—the other fourteen variations continuously interject their influence by brute force. The coda is a virtual explosion of color and sonority.
Détours was commissioned by Texas State University. It was given its world premiere on November 7, 2012 by pianist Marc-André Hamelin, to whom this work is respectfully dedicated.
Wayne Oquin
August 6, 2012
Abu Dhabi