Trois Valses Caprices

Born in Montreal in 1893, Gilles Amiot grew up in the province of Quebec in a wealthy family. He entred the Laval University dental school in Montreal in 1911 and graduated in 1915. During his university years, Gilles took part in numerous musical competitions on Canadian radio. A good pianist and improviser, he also accompanied silent films presented in a Montreal movie theatre. Between 1912 and 1916 the composed three waltzes for piano: Dilettante, Mélancolie and Gaby Waltz. He stopped his musical peiformances in 1918 to enlist in the Dental Corps of the Canadian Expeditionary Army. He was promoted to the rank of captain and stationed in Siberia where he received command of the 260th battalion. After returning to Canada in 1919, Gilles Amiot left the armed forces to go back to practicing his profession in Salaberry-de-Valleyfield (Quebec). He would continue to play the piano to entertain his patients and guests until his death in 1970. Endowed with an irresistible charm, the works of Gilles Amiot show the importance given to lyricism at the time when they were composed. Seduced by these forgotten works and injluenced by the constraints of the global pandemic of 2020, I decided to compose these concert studies for solo saxophone inspired by the melodies of the waltzes in order to share them one hundred years later in a new way for a new audience. Victor HERBIET (great grandson of Dr. Gilles Amiot)