This composition consists of four movements and is written for and dedicated to Gÿorgy Sándor Fazakas who requested a solo flute composition after the performance of my works at one of the annual Young Composers Concerts. I chose a French title for the work because I was fascinated by the literature of Victor Hugo at that time and most sketches were completed during the time my fiancée visited Paris in 2012. The idea of snow was originally inspired by Poulenc’s choir work Un soir de neige (a night of snow) and photographs of Pont Alexandra III during snow time. I explore a wide variety of alternative and extended flute techniques in this composition, especially to imitate images of wind and snow. The title, of course, indicates this: Fleeting visions in snowy weather. The technical abilities and breath control of the performer is explored to the limits of what is possible. A constant meter is avoided in most parts because snowfall is also irregular. The four movements do not differ as much in tempo as movements conventionally do, because the focus is more on different techniques and textures.

The first performance of this work (only two movements) was given by André Oosthuizen because George Fazakas had to go for an emergency operation at the time of the concert. Fazakas played the full composition for the first time, a year later.

La première Caresse revigorante de la Vie

In the title of the first movement the first snowfall is described as the First Invigorating Caressing of Life. A fragmented ornamental melody is introduced at the beginning of the movement and a few alternative techniques such as flatter tongue, key clicks, pizzicato playing, a glissando, and straight and vibrating air sounds are introduced in this movement. I used an inverted quasi-Schenkerian approach to accentuate the melody which is heard with much ornamentation. The material from the melody is used and developed throughout the movement. The tranquil melody represents the caressing of life and the suggestion of snow and wind is captured in the syncopation of the melody line in bars of different lengths and different isochronous and non-isochronous measures. The chromatic progression of the stability points at the beginning of each phrase in the first four bars prepares listeners for more complex harmonic processes in the movement that follows. F is an important point of harmonic reference but is later replaced with C# which is also the note that the second movement starts on.

L’oiseau de Neige

This programmatic movement depicts a snowbird. Different musical gestures are used in order to depict a bird trying to fly through a windy snowfall and also to represent the bird’s occasional chirps. This movement must be performed freely and elegantly, as is suggested by the tempo indications. Many of the performance decisions in this movement are left to the discretion of the performer, which contributes to the idea of snowfall which is not regular. Flatter tongue, glissandi, wind sounds, overblowing, tremolos, key clicks, pizzicato playing and an extended register are explored in this movement. A complex harmonic and rhythmic process is followed with regard to the first and last note of the first musical gesture and its restatements: the first note of each musical gesture chromatically ascends and becomes shorter while the last note of each musical gesture chromatically descends and becomes longer. The rest of the gesture spanning the two outer notes is also developed and becomes longer with each restatement. When the initial C# is reached again after the chromatic movement, the chromatic scale and especially the chirping gestures are explored in different registers before the movement ends on a high D.

Chansons disparaissant dans la Montagne

Melodies disappearing in the Mountain recapitulates the melody from the first movement. The melody is heard twice on two different tonal levels. The first time the melody is played with an unconventional embouchure; the flute is held diagonally to produce an airy sound and unclear pitches. The second time the melody is played with other techniques where the embouchure hole is gradually closed whilst playing and pizzicato playing in order to produce even more unclear pitches. The idea of this movement is to use alternative techniques in order to produce sounds that become more airy and less pitched like someone who is walking deeper and deeper into 8 mountains while playing on a flute of which the sounds gradually become more unclear until they faint away.

Tempête de neige

In the Snowstorm movement the prime numbers 2, 3, 5, 7, 11 and 13 play an important role especially regarding the length of repeated patterns. The movement begins with different airy sounds which resemble an upcoming wind which becomes stronger as time passes, followed by a few snowflakes falling. Chromatic patterns which are played with a flatter tongue also resemble the wind; the growing tonal tension represents the growing intensity of the wind. The whole movement rests upon these chromatic motives. Very strong winds are depicted with glissandi which glide to high pitches which are played rhythmically. A short melody is introduced and constantly interrupted with wind sounds. This melody is later developed and stated with prime number rhythms. Previous melodic ideas are developed at the end of the movement before the composition ends with a glissando-like pattern on the C which is the tonal centre of this movement.