Seven Solos for Orchestra stems from Dusapin's ambition to write a large-scale piece at a time when he lacked a commission to realize it.
His solution was to write seven independent but interrelated works over a period of 17 years,[1][4][6] a process that calls to mind Wolfgang Rihm's Jagden und Formen.
[7] In Dusapin's own words: In the early 1990s I wanted to get away from the running times of between ten and twenty minutes that are invariably associated with commissions for orchestra.
I dreamt of an extended, complex form comprising seven autonomous episodes regenerating themselves from within, fertilising other possibilities, and proliferating on the interstices left open …[1] The first solo, Go, is predominantly violent and furious although it contains some quieter moments.
[1][4] After these two relatively slow solos, Exeo (Latin for "I go out") is characterized by the sharp contrasts created by the dramatic clash of the high and low registers of the orchestra.