Fugitive Lines is intended to carry a double meaning. On the one hand, it refers to the musical line — melodic and harmonic — but also to the lines of the stave as a space for sonic, technical and gestural exploration. On the other, it evokes the more elusive notion of the fugitive and of uprooting.

The piece employs different techniques — variations of bow pressure, double melodic lines combining pizzicato and bowing, and extreme registers — in pursuit of heightened expression, at times reaching the intensity of a cry. Some melodic contours and instrumental techniques draw on non-European influences.

Abrupt rhythmic passages alternate with melodic lines that are sometimes fleeting, sometimes expanding into broad bariolage gestures and clouds of harmonics, before new lines escape once again towards silence, cry or the unknown.

The second movement, Fugitive Lines II, is more condensed and almost unrestrained. Rapid parlando writing, sudden bursts and extreme registers create a volatile instrumental discourse, periodically interrupted by quieter pizzicato passages. The fugitive line thus becomes more fragmented and restless, continually shifting between speech, gesture and resonance.