Grard Grisey

Source: The Musical Times, Vol. 140, No. 1866 (Spring, 1999), p. 7
Published by: Musical Times Publications Ltd.
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1193476 .
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Gerard Grisey
Generously gifted, and a man of wit
and charm besides, Gerard Grisey was
a composer who looked set to become
France'sleading creative figure of the mid-
dle generation in the first decade of the
new millennium, and whose early death,
aged 52, is a tragic loss to the contempo-
rary music world, where talent is profuse,
but profound imagination is as rarely
encountered as ever. His departure will
be felt particularlyby his admirers in
the English-speaking world, where recent
performances - of Vortextemporum,
for example, at last year'sHuddersfield
Festival, and in February this year, the
London Sinfonietta premiere of his BBC
commissioned and presciently entitled
-
Foursongsfor crossingthethreshold
suggested a figure on the cusp of broader
recognition as the leading light of a
generation of French musicians following
that of Pierre Boulez.
For more dedicated followers of recent
trends in Gallic musical life, Grisey had Gerard Grisey (Photo:Guy Vivien)
for some time been seen as a key figure
in the unfolding story of new music in of it, at the heart of his artistic agenda tra, premiered by the Los Angeles Philhar-
Europe since the 1970s. There was a from his earliest days as a winner of the monic under Salonen in 1996, he was
twofold fascination to his career.Breaking coveted Prix de Rome, while staying at widely regarded as having achieved the
free from the attitudes of the 1950s and the Villa Medici from 1972 to 1974. With most distinctive statement of his sadly
1960s avant-garde in his orchestral work a typical clarity of purpose, he moved on all-too-short career.
Derives (1974), he pioneered with his from Derives, which blurred distinctions Grisey taught composition at the
friend and colleague TristanMurail a new between timbre, harmony and duration, University of California at Berkeley from
style of 'spectral composition, based on to Periodes (1974) for seven instruments, 1982 to 1986, before returning to Paris as
detailed analysis of the acoustical proper- and Partiels (1975) for eight instruments, Professor of Composition at the Conser-
ties of sound. At the same time, his awe- both works belonging to a vast cycle of six vatoire, where he remained until his death.
some pedigree lent him impeccable pieces, Les espaces acoustiques,which was In addition, his reflections on time, pulse
artistic credentials. A pupil of Messiaen finally completed in 1985 with Epilogue, and sound contained in the treatise Tempus
and Dutilleux, Grisey was also open to and which lasts over ninety minutes. ex machina- a composer'reflections
on
the influence of Stockhausen, Stimmung This monumental work concluded, musical time have proved of significance
(1968) in particular,and to a catholic Grisey pursued a significant change of for several other contemporary composers.
range of enthusiasms that encompassed style in the 13 years of creative work with GerardGrisey:bornBelfort,France,
figures as diverse as Janacek and Scelsi. which he was further blessed. The new 17June1946;diedParis,11 November1998.
If the refined science of spectography direction involved a search for greater
gave to Grisey the particular point of flexibility and unpredictability,within the
departure for the sonic experiments that parameters of a music that was still made John Addison
permeated the form and content of his 'from sound, not notes'. In the IRCAM- While for many composers the need
work, its data operated on a mind that commissioned Les chants de l'amour,for to write for the cinema may involve a
clearly possessed, to the highest degree, 12 mixed voices and tape, he responded painful compromise of conscience with
a sense of those fine discriminations of eloquently both to Stimmungand the grander ambitions to succeed in abstract
timbre and sonority that, from Berlioz to Tristan myth, and Stockhausen-like, he concert-hall works, it was John Addison's
Ravel, tradition has acknowledged to be received pulses from outer space in Le good fortune to have taken to the medium
uniquely French. An enthusiastic student noir de l'etoile. In his more recent works, naturally, and for nearly forty years to
of acoustics whilst still enrolled at the including Le temps et l'ecume(1989) for have achieved in it unqualified success
Paris Conservatoire and Ecole Normale, orchestra, dramatic discontinuity became through a sequence of films that include
Grisey placed the exploration of sound, of increasing significance; while in Eicone some of the finest products of the British
and an understanding of our perception paradoxale, for two sopranos and orches- film industry.

THE MUSICAL TIMES / SPRING 1999 7

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