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Jean-Baptiste ROBIN
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Instrumental music - Chamber music - Orchestral music - Vocal music - Others - Complete listing of works
Concertofor large orchestra and organ
Instrumentation : 3.3.3.3 / 4.3.3.1 / T+2 // organ solo // strings
Composition​ : 2025
Commission : Orchestre des Pays de la Loire, Printemps des orgues and Beijing Organ festival
Duration​ : 18'30 mn
First performance : 11 may 2025, centre de Congrés in Angers, France. Orchestre des Pays de la Loire, dir. Philippe Forget, organ : Shen Yuan
Publisher : Gérard Billaudot (full score and orchestral parts for rent)
This concerto in four movements takes a unique approach to the organ. Forsaking all virtuosity, the instrument does not seek to compete with the orchestra; instead, it supports it, notably through the infinite sustain of its sounds. More importantly, it often stands alone, sovereign, like a grand resonating object.
The first movement opens with a brief motif that spreads throughout the orchestra, as if each musician were initiating a collective conversation. From this effervescence emerges a lively rhythmic theme, culminating in the triumphant and sudden entrance of the organ. Gradually, the music becomes more tormented and complex, yet both themes remain ever-present.
The second movement features a reduced ensemble: strings, organ, and a few woodwinds. The music, both poetic and mysterious, unfolds in a chiaroscuro of suspended harmonies and fleeting melodic motifs.
The third movement begins at a moderate tempo, reintroducing the rhythmic theme of the first movement, now imbued with the character of an ancient melody. The organ appears alone and develops a passacaglia. As a ceremonial instrument, it establishes a sonic ritual that expands into a vast, tragic, and harrowing passacaglia, where the orchestra, carried away by this relentless tension, exhausts itself in a surge of power.
The fourth movement breaks this tragic energy with the organ’s resounding return. This brief finale alternates between the two themes before culminating in a final build-up of tension, where organ and orchestra merge in a liberating explosion of sound.
Trois Destinées / Three Destiniesfor soprano and orchestra
Instrumentation : Soprano - 2.2.2.2 - 4.2.2.1 - 2.Timpani.Harp - strings
Composition​ : 2020
Commission : Commission from cities of Versailles and Berlin
Duration​ : 11'30 mn
First performance : October 2021, 21st in Paris St-Eustache, 22nd in Versailles Palais des Congrés, 25th in Berlin Konzerthaus and 27th in Potsdam Nikolaikirche
Publisher : Gérard Billaudot (full score and orchestral parts for rent)
1. Das Wort (The Word)
2. Prière (Pray)
3. Hymne (Hymn)
Poems from Marilène Meckler and Jean-Baptiste Robin

These three pieces were composed in the spring of 2020 during the first Lockdown of the French population in the face of the spread of the coronavirus.
This exceptional context was an unexpected link with the subject of the commission of the work: War, uncertainty, the union of peoples and the freedom regained in the aftermath of the Second World War.
It is therefore here both the crisis of 1939-45 which is expressed, but also, through its feelings, that of 2020. The unpublished texts alternate French and German, and illustrate the reunion of these two countries after the conflict ...
Zenithfor strings orchestra and 2 oboes
Instrumentation : 2 oboes and string orchestra (65431)
Composition​ : 2020
Commission : Commission from the Orchestre des Pays de Savoie and Fondation FACIM
Duration​ : 8'30 mn
First performance : July 2020, Orchestre des Pays de Savoie, cond. Nicolas Chalvin
Publisher : Gérard Billaudot (full score and orchestral parts for rent)
Composed on the request of the orchestra of the Pays de Savoie, this piece presents two very distinct ideas: the time and the human. The first element is a brief unchanging rhythmic tick-tock, in string pizzicato, which evokes a spinning star. The second element is a melody in long values in the low range of the strings (cellos) which gradually goes towards the high range (violins). This long ascending line is a human prayer directed to the heaven. The two ideas are in opposition and then overlap, as if the celestial body and the human being were trying to touch and unite. The oboe then appears, which takes up the idea of a prayer but with joy.
After this first arc, the theme of time is significantly developed and then spreads to all the instruments of the orchestra with a much more dancing rhythm. Time becomes more human until the appearance of oboes in long values. The elements come together again and more intensely than the first time.
La lame des heuresfor large orchestra
Instrumentation : 3[Pic.2.3].3[1/CA.2.3].3.3[1.2.3/CBn] - 4.3.3.1 - 1.3.1.[Cel] /string quintet
Composition​ : 2019
Commission : Musique Nouvelle en Liberté for the Grand Prix Compositeur des Lycéens
Duration​ : 10 mn
First performance : April 4 2019, Orchestre National de France, cond. Marin Alsop
Publisher : Gérard Billaudot (full score and orchestral parts for rent)
Time, in this piece for large orchestra, is a character in its own right. Present from the beginning to the end of the work, time takes the form of a tick-tock (tic-tac) and circulates between all the instruments. After a brief and energetic introduction, the ticking appears for the first time on the percussion, more precisely on the temple blocks. This sound motif is constantly developed in the orchestration and surrounds itself with circular musical elements (circular melodies, harmonic balancing, symmetrical modes, etc.), so that the listener feels immersed in the heart of time. Dark, mischievous, ill-tempered, heroic ... the tick-tock takes on different characters and gradually appears as a blade that wounds, leaves scars, that never ceases. At the center of the work, this outburst fades and gives way to brighter lighting: successive solos on celestial sounds entrusted to the clarinet, oboe, flute, and english horn. The piece culminates in a finale of strident and relentless chords that evoke the twenty-four-hour cycle. Time struggles in vain against its collapse before sinking into nothingness.
Chant de l'Âme /Song of the Soulfor C trumpet and string orchestra
Instrumentation : string orchestra and C trumpet
Composition​ : 2014
Duration​ : 7 mn
First performance : September 6, 2014, Orchestre d'Auvergne and Romain Leleu, trumpet
Publisher : Gérard Billaudot (full score and orchestral parts on location)
The tender and nostalgic melody of the beginning of the piece appears in a profoundly peaceful and luminous atmosphere. This single and omnipresent theme, supported by warm harmonies, never stops rising, desperate, until it reaches a poignant climax.
Doors to heavenly music then open, instruments suspended in the high register, while a violin, as a comforting Angel, introduces itself into the dialogue.
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Mechanic Fantasyfor organ, string orchestra and timpani
Instrumentation : Organ/string quintet/4 timpani
Composition​ : 2013
Commission : Orchestre Régional de Normandie
Duration​ : 10 mn 30 s
First performance : June 7 and June 8, 2013, Orchestre Régional de Normandie. Cond.: David Wroe and March 20, 2016, Victoria Hall in Geneva by the Orchestre des Pays de Savoie, cond. Aurélien Azan-Zielinski, Diego Innoce
Publisher : Gérard Billaudot (full score and orchestral parts for rent)
For a long time, I have been fascinated by mechanical clocks. From the large clocks of churches to modern wristwatches, these are objects which measure time and seem to give it life, like the mysterious music of the spheres.
The whirling of a clock's hands is enchanting. It resembles the circular melodies and self-reflecting modes I theorized on years ago and have often used in my works.
The most mechanically complex instrument is probably the organ, and thus it seemed natural for me to associate it with this mechanical universe...
Crop Circlesfor large orchestra
Instrumentation : 3.3.3.3/4.3.3/2perc./Cel./Hp./string quintet
Composition​ : 2012
Commission : Radio France
Duration​ : 10 mn 30 s
First performance : First recording: September 27, 2012, Orchestre National de France, Cond.: Jean Deroyer. First performance: October 12, 2014, Orchestre Colonne, Cond.: Laurent Petitgirard, Salle Pleyel.
Publisher : Gérard Billaudot (full score and orchestral parts for rent)
This piece for full orchestra is inspired by Crop Circles: geometric designs that are found in fields worldwide.
The work begins with an orchestral melody heard in a continuous loop - like a crop circle - and a musical mode constructed on a perfectly symmetrical mode. It is directly followed by a second theme, more lyrical, freer and also more human.
The first part gradually becomes more intense, patterns swirl faster and faster, and the tempo accelerates to a breathtaking speed.
Distancesfor chamber orchestra
Instrumentation : 1.1.1.1/1.1.1/2perc./pno./string quintet
Composition​ : 2010
Commission : Ensemble intercontemporain
Duration​ : 9 mn
First performance : May 28, 2010, Salle Pleyel, Ensemble Intercontemporain, cond. Pierre Boulez
Publisher : Gérard Billaudot (full score and orchestral parts for rent)
The work use reflective modes and chords and each note is related to another one by symmetry.
In order to maintain flexibility and to emerge from this strict structural background, I chose expressive territories distant one from another, but still linked by common thematic elements.
These distances mainly concern tessitura, dynamics and tones , but they are also due to oppositions such as: in focus and blurry, expected and unexpected, static and kinetic, etc.
An example: The dark music, ringing in the lowest registers, with fragile melodies and mournful knell, is later found metamorphosed in the high register and accompanied by delicate bright shades.
The instrumental writing shows the same desire of contrasts. I tried to make this small group of instruments sound in different ways, sometimes as a large orchestra, sometimes as a very small ensemble.
Paysages parallèles / Parallel Landscapesfor large orchestra
Instrumentation : 3.3.3.3/4.3.4.3.1/timb.2perc./cel./h./14.12.10.8.6
Composition​ : 2003-2004
Duration​ : 11 mn 30 s
First performance : CNSMDP
Publisher : unpublished
Toccatafor large orchestra (extract from Tombeau de Couperin by Maurice Ravel)
Instrumentation : 3.3.3.3/4.3.4.3.1/timb.2perc./h./ 14.12.10.8.6.
Composition​ : 2002, commissioned by the Orchestre National de Lyon for the "Journées de la composition"
Duration​ : 4 mn
First performance : Orchestre National de Lyon, cond. Pascal Rophé
Publisher : unpublished (written with the autorisation of Durand publisher)