Gérard Grisey

Gérard Grisey (/ˈɡrɪzɨ/; French: [ɡʁizɛ]; June 17, 1946– November 11, 1998) was a French composer ofcontemporary music.

1 Biography

Gérard Grisey was born in Belfort, France on 17 June1946. He studied at the Trossingen Conservatoryin Germany from 1963 to 1965 before entering theConservatoire de Paris, where he studied with OlivierMessiaen from 1965–67 and again from 1968–72, work-ing with Henri Dutilleux at the Ecole Normale in 1968(Anderson 2001). He won prizes for piano accompa-niment, harmony, counterpoint, fugue, and composi-tion at the Conservatoire. He also studied electroacous-tics with Jean-Etienne Marie in 1969), composition withIannis Xenakis and György Ligeti at the DarmstädterFerienkurse in 1972, and acoustics with Emile Leippat the Faculté des Sciences in 1974 ((Anderson 2001).Other studies were undertaken in the summer of 1969 atthe Accademia Chigiana in Siena and in Darmstadt withKarlheinz Stockhausen.Grisey won the highly coveted Prix de Rome and stayedat the Villa Medici in Rome from 1972 to 1974, andin 1973 founded a group called L’itinéraire with TristanMurail, Roger Tessier and Michael Levinas, later tobe joined by Hugues Dufourt. Dérives, Périodes, andPartiels were among the first pieces of spectral music.In 1974-75, he studied acoustics with Emile Leipp atthe Paris VI University, and in 1980 became a traineeat the IRCAM (Institut de Recherche et CoordinationAcoustique/Musique). In the same year he went toBerlin as a guest of the D.A.A.D., and afterwards leftfor the University of California, Berkeley, where he wasappointed professor of theory and composition (1982-1986). After returning to Europe, he taught compositionat the Conservatoire de Paris, and held numerous compo-sition seminars in France (Centre Acanthes, Lyon, Paris)and abroad (Darmstadt, Freiburg, Milan, Reggio Emilia,Oslo, Helsinki, Malmö, Göteborg, Los Angeles, Stan-ford, London, Moscow, Madrid, etc.) For notable pupilsSee: List of music students by teacher: G to M#GérardGrisey.GérardGrisey died at the age of 52 in Paris on 11Novem-ber 1998 due to a ruptured aneurysm.Among his works, most of which were commissioned byfamous institutions and international instrumental groups,

are Dérives 1974, Jour, contre-jour 1979, Tempus exmachina 1979, Les chants de l’amour 1984, Talea 1986,Le temps et l’écume 1989, Le noir de I’etoile 1990, L’icôneparadoxale 1994, Les espaces acoustiques (a cycle con-sisting of six pieces), Vortex temporum 1995 and Quatrechants pour franchir le seuil 1998.

2 Musical style

Grisey’s music is often considered to belong to the genreof spectral music, which he is credited with foundingalong with fellow composer Tristan Murail, althoughhe later disowned the label in interviews and writings.Nonetheless, he spent much of his career exploring thespectrum of tone colour between harmonic overtones andnoise. In addition, he was fascinated bymusical processeswhich unfold slowly, and he made musical time a majorelement of many of his pieces.He expressed the opinion that: “We are musicians andour model is sound not literature, sound not mathematics,sound not theatre, visual arts, quantum physics, geology,astrology or acupuncture” (Fineberg 2006, p. 105).

3 List of works• Echanges, for prepared piano and double bass(1968)

• Mégalithes, for 15 brass players (1969)

• “Charme”, for clarinet solo (1969)

• Perichoresis, for 3 instrumental groups (1969–1970)

• Initiation, for baritone, trombone, and double bass(1970)

• Vagues, chemins, le souffle, for clarinet and orchestra(1970–72)

• D'eau et de pierre, for 2 instrumental groups (1972)

• Dérives, for 2 orchestral groups (1973–74)

• Les espaces acoustiques – II – Périodes, for flute,clarinet, trombone, violin, viola, cello, and doublebass (1974)

• Les espaces acoustiques – III – Partiels, for 18 musi-cians (1975)

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2 5 EXTERNAL LINKS

• Manifestations, for youth orchestra (1976)

• Les espaces acoustiques – I – Prologue, for viola andoptional live electronics (1976)

• Les espaces acoustiques – IV – Modulations, for or-chestra (1976–77)

• Sortie vers la lumière du jour, for electric organ and14 musicians (1978)

• Jour, contre-jour, for electric organ, 14 musicians,and tape (1978–79)

• Tempus ex machina, for 6 percussionists (1979)

• Les espaces acoustiques – V – Transitoires, for largeorchestra (1980)

• Solo pour deux, for clarinet and trombone (1981)

• Anubis, Nout, for Bb contrabass clarinet (1983)

• Les chants de l'amour, for 12 voices and tape (1982–1984)

• Les espaces acoustiques – VI – Epilogue, for 4 solohorns and large orchestra (1985)

• Talea, for violin, cello, flute, clarinet, and piano(1986)

• Le temps et l'écume, for 4 percussionists, 2 synthe-sizers, and chamber orchestra (1988–89)

• Accords perdus: Cinq miniatures, for 2 horns (1989)

• Le noir de l'étoile, for 6 percussionists, tape, and liveelectronics (1989–90)

• Anubis, Nout, for bass saxophone and baritone sax-ophone (1990)

• L'icône paradoxale (Hommage à Piero dellaFrancesca), for 2 female voices and 2 orchestralgroups (1992–94)

• Stèle, for 2 percussionists (1995)

• Vortex temporum, for piano, clarinet (bass, Bb andA), flute (bass, C and picc.), violin, viola and cello(1994–96)

• Quatre chants pour franchir le seuil, for soprano andfifteen instruments (1997–98)

4 References

• Anderson, Julian. 2001. “Grisey, Gérard”. TheNew Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians,second edition, edited by Stanley Sadie and JohnTyrrell. London: Macmillan Publishers.

• Arrell, Chris. 2002. “Pushing the Envelope: Artand Science in the Music of Gérard Grisey”. Doc-toral diss. Ithaca: Cornell University.

• Arrell, Chris. 2008. “The Music of Sound: AnAnalysis of Gérard Grisey’s Partiels". In SpectralWorld Musics: Proceedings of the Istanbul SpectralMusic Conference, edited by Robert Reigle and PaulWhitehead, (pp. 318-332). Istanbul: Pan Yayinci-lik. ISBN 9944-396-27-3.

• Fineberg, Joshua. 2006. Classical Music, WhyBother?: Hearing the World of Contemporary Cul-ture Through a Composer’s Ears. New York: Rout-ledge. ISBN 0-415-97174-8; ISBN 978-0-415-97174-4.

• Grisey, Gérard. 2008. "Écrits ou l’invention dela musique spectrale”, edited by Guy Lelong andAnne-Marie Réby. Répercussions. Paris: MusicaFalsa. ISBN 978-2-915794-31-1.

• Cohen-Levinas, Danièle (ed). 2004. “GérardGrisey ou la beauté des ombres sonores. Paris:L'Harmattan / L'itinéraire.

• Hervé, Jean-Luc. 2001. “Dans le vertige de ladurée (Vortex Temporum deGérardGrisey)", Paris:L’Harmattan.

• Baillet, Jérôme. 2000. “Gérard Grisey, Fondementsd’une écriture”. Paris: L’Harmattan.

• Grisey, Gérard, and Tristan Murail “Entretemps(8)", Paris:.

• Levy, Fabien. 2001. “Gérard Grisey, eine neueGrammatologie aus dem Phänomen des Klangs”[Gérard Grisey, a New Grammatology from thePhenomenon of Sound]. In “20 Jahre Inventio-nen Berliner Festival Neuer Musik”, edited by I.Beirer/DAAD, Berlin: Pfau Verlag.

5 External links• A biography on IRCAM's website (French)

• Biography and list of Compositions from Casa Ri-cordi Publishing (English)

• Interview with the Composer

• Excerpts from sound archives of Grisey’s works

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6 Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

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