French Composers’ Names – Gérard Grisey
The third composer in this series that was part of Ensemble l’Itinéraire (along with Tristan Murail and Hugues Dufourt) is another French spectral composer: Gérard Grisey. Born in Belfort (about 34 miles west of the German border) Grisey studied at Trossingen Conservatory in Germany before moving to Paris to study at the Conservatoire with Olivier Messiaen from 1968 to 1972. Other teachers include Henri Dutilleux, György Ligeti, Karlheinz Stockhausen, and Iannis Xenakis. Not bad on a resumé.
Gérard Grisey
Grisey was one of the first composers to articulate the Spectral idea that timbre should be a central element for a piece of music during a presentation at the Darmstadt courses in 1978:
The material derives from the natural growth of sonority, from the macrostructure and not the other way round. In other words there is no basic material (no melodic cell, no complex of notes or note values).
When pronouncing Grisey’s name, remember not to pronounce the final -d of his first name, and notice that the s in Grisey is between two vowels and will be pronounced as a Z. The -ey combination will be pronounced as an e accent aigu, é (as in clay but without the diphthong). Ready?
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Link to file – ICIYL – Gérard Grisey
And here’s a video of a recent performance of Grisey’s Talea by Ensemble Linea in Buffalo, NY in June 2011.
Finally, thank you to Kyle Lynch for requesting this new addition to our series on Twitter!
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Was it useful? Any other composer’s/piece’s name you’d like to see featured? Post a comment or find us on twitter: @icareifulisten.
November 17th, 2011 at 3:23 pm
One thing I love about Grisey is that little similar “motives” show up in his works, despite how absolutist he claimed to be or how much he insisted upon macrostructure over microstructure. I have a similar experience when listening to Mahler symphonies, where themes are often shared between works, even if they are written decades apart.
I lost my spectral virginity to Partiels, so I tend to relate every new Grisey work I hear back to that one. There are certain harmonies/pitch combinations, etc. that show up in Talea almost verbatim to their appearance in Partiels. I’m sure this is most likely a result of the fact that the same harmonic spectra can appear in many different contexts, but it also makes this fun continuity and lots of “oh yeah!” moments.
Grisey rocks.
November 17th, 2011 at 4:04 pm
Thanks Lawton! I hear similar idiosyncrasies in Ravel’s music (use of ninths, certain suspensions, etc.) that I know much better than Grisey’s. Yeah, Grisey rocks!
Check this concert out (the video will be available online for more 4 months)…
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