Hugues Dufourt favours continuity and the slow transformations of a musical discourse that is rarely interrupted. He designs forms based on the evolution of masses and works on notions of thresholds, oscillations, interference and oriented processes. A pioneer of the spectral movement, he nevertheless gave it a broader definition, seeking to highlight the instability that timbre introduces into orchestration. His music is based on a wealth of sonic and harmonic constellations and draws on a dialectic of timbre and time. He draws part of his inspiration from pictorial art, from which he essentially retains the role of colour, materials and light (Dawn flight, a string quartet premiered in 2008 at Musica, Le Cyprès blanc and L'Origine du monde, premiered at Musica 2004).

Influenced by the French avant-garde of the 1960s, Hugues Dufourt took part in the activities of L'Itinéraire (1975-81) and in 1977 founded the Collectif de Recherche Instrumentale et de Synthèse Sonore (CRISS) with Alain Bancquart and Tristan Murail. He was awarded his Agrégation in Philosophy in 1967, and has published numerous works. He was a research fellow (1973-85) then director of research at the CNRS (1985-2009) and in 1982 set up the "Musical Research" joint research unit, which he directed until 1995. Hugues Dufourt has received numerous awards, including the Prix du Président de la République in 2000 for his body of work, awarded by the Académie Charles Cros.

In recent years, Hugues Dufourt has composed works for a wide range of ensembles, from solo piano (Tombeau de Debussy premiered at Festival Musica 2018) to full orchestra (Ur-Geräusch, premiered in 2016 by the WDR Orchestra, Les deux saules d'après Monet premiered in 2020 in Vienna by the Radio Symphony Orchestra), through to small ensembles (L'atelier rouge after Matisse, premiered in Warsaw in 2020 by Ensemble Nikel) or percussion (Burning Bright, premiered by Percussions de Strasbourg at Festival Musica 2014). La Horde after Max Ernst, for orchestra, commissioned by the Lemanic Modern Ensemble and Radio France, will be premiered at the Festival Présences 2022.

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