Time Factories

Tone Poem • 2026
Grade 4.5 (advanced) • ca. 12.30 min. • FC Music Publishing

Instrumentation : Picc, 2Fl, Ob, Bsn, EbCl(opt), 3Cl, ACl(opt), BCl, 2ASax, TSax, BarSax, 3Tpt, 4Hn, 3Tbn, Euph, Tba, DBass(opt), Pno(opt), 5Perc

Les manufactures du temps (Time Factories) was commissioned by the Harmonie Municipale de Champagnole (Emmanuel Casagranda, conductor) to celebrate its 180th anniversary. As a tribute to the commissioning ensemble, the work draws its inspiration from the watchmaking tradition that has shaped the French-Swiss Jura region—a land where time is not only measured, but also crafted.

More than a historical homage, the piece invites the listener into an imaginary world with a cinematic atmosphere infused with steampunk aesthetics. Turning gears, mysterious clockworks and mechanical pulses become the driving forces behind a musical journey where past and future converge.

While composing this work, I imagined a world worthy of Jules Verne : a secret laboratory hidden behind the creaking door of an old barn, filled with extraordinary machines where science and magic coexist. Through its textures, momentum and contrasts, the music portrays the mechanics of time—at times regular and precise like a finely crafted timepiece, at others unpredictable and whimsical as the gears spin beyond control.

I hope to invite the audience to step through this imaginary door and enter this world with the eyes of a dreaming, curious and adventure-seeking child.

The world premiere of the work will take place in December 2026.