Jacqueline Fontyn

Polissonnerie

The composition "Polissonnerie" ("Lausbuberei") was commissioned by the Paris Conservatoire national supérieur de musique et de danse de Paris as a compulsory piece for its percussion competition (1992). Nevertheless, it is an independent work and is not intended as a pure competition piece. A single percussionist rules over an astonishing array of instruments — timpani, marimba, vibraphone, bongos, gongs and tam-tam, but also a sliding whistle, police whistle, a dozen marbles and a hard plastic ball — to show his virtuosity as well as his imagination, to be allowed to "s'éclater" himself, in Fontyn's words. The golden ratio is hidden in the form, the omnipresence of fourths and excessive fourths (or diminished fifths) in the melodic and chordal language, which create a harmonically dubious climate. Virtuoso and theatrical, demanding in difficulty, the piece turns the drummer into a juggler, to whom the piano tirelessly answers, comments and plays strings.