Au-delà, Cinq Études pour Piccolo, for piccolo (1997-98)
The term “Etudes” refers to the composition of the pieces, each following different formal principles, as well as to the instrumental aspect.
The first and third Etudes are set in a slow and collected atmosphere. In the first one the phrases are discontinuous and of irregular lengths and changing speeds, exploring almost the whole range of the instrument; the third one integrates natural and harmonic sounds inside long, continuous phrases.
The second and fourth Etudes are more relaxed and their construction is essentially motivic, with constant deformations of intervals and rhythmic patterns.
The last one develops a very characteristic technique of the instrument: fast articulation. The rhythmic language differs completely from that prevailing in the other four Etudes: there reigns a great metric irregularity in spite of a constant sixteenth-note subdivision.