Jean-Claude Éloy

Jean -Claude Eloy ( born June 15, 1938 in Mont -Saint -Aignan, Canton Mont -Saint -Aignan, France ) is a French composer of instrumental, vocal and electro-acoustic music.

In his work, Eloy realized a synthesis of the most significant music of the 20th century - between electronic and acoustic music, between European and non-European music. Although he received a solid classical music training, Eloy has his youth an admirer and a Connoisseur of non-European music traditions. Even if he never repudiated the complexity of Western music thought that determine the experience of non-European music in a decisive way his artistic inspiration.

Music education

Jean -Claude Eloy ( near Rouen ) was born in Mont -Saint -Aignan. After classical studies at the Paris Conservatory (piano, chamber music, counterpoint, ondes Martenot and composition with Darius Milhaud ), between the late 1950s and the early 1960s, Eloy visited several times the Darmstadt Summer Courses for New Music. From 1961 to 1963 Eloy studied composition with Pierre Boulez at the Music Academy of Basel.

The young Eloy assimilated with great speed, the teaching of the Second Viennese School ( Schoenberg, Webern, Berg ) and the music of Olivier Messiaen, as works such as Trois pièces pour piano ( " Three Piano Pieces " ) (1960), Cinqu poèmes de Saigyo (1960 ) for soprano and piano and Chants pour une ombre (1961 ) for soprano and 8 instruments show.

Career

The examination of Pierre Boulez is crucial for the music education of young Eloy. Etude III (1962 ) for orchestra ( Darius Milhaud dedicated ) and Equivalences (1963 ) for 18 musicians (Pierre Boulez dedicated ) are the first works, which are received by a larger audience.

From 1966 to 1968, Eloy professor at the University of California, Berkeley. After the stay abroad in the United States, Eloy distances of serial music and in his work for the interest of the sound itself, and for the ritual dimension is always central. Since the early 1970s, the cultural references in his work to be philosophical and musical ideas of Asian traditions (especially to India and Japan) always explicit and more frequent.

The work Kâmakalâ dar. ( " triangle of energies " ) for three orchestras, five choral groups and three conductors represents a real stylistic turning point in his work

1972 Eloy is invited by his friend Karl Heinz Stockhausen in the Studio for Electronic Music in Cologne, in order to realize his first electronic work. The result of his experimentation in the studio with the sound and by the time the sound is Shanti ( "Peace " ) (1972 /73), a two-hour Fresco for electronic and concrete sounds, the particular philosophy of Heraclitus ( struggle of opposites ) and influenced the writings on Yoga, Sri Aurobindo Ghose.

After the composition of fluctuante - immuable (1977 ) for orchestra, Eloy works 1977-1978 in the Studio for Electronic Music of the Tokyo Broadcasting Corporation ( NHK ), where he developed the four-hour Fresco Gaku -no- Michi ( " The ways of the music " or " Dào of Music" ) composed, based on the dialectic between concrete ( captured by the Japanese daily life sounds ) and abstract materials ( sounds synthetically produced ).

Also the next major works strong relation with the Japanese culture and the Japanese music: Yo -In ( " reverberations " ) (1980 ), music for an imaginary ritual in four elevators for tape and a drummer who played more than 100 percussion instruments; A l' approche du Feu méditant ... (1983 ) for 27 gagaku instruments, two choruses of Buddhist monks ( Shômyô vocals ) and five Bugaku Dancers; Anahata (1984-1986) for electronic and concrete sounds, five gagaku musicians and two Japanese Buddhist monks ( Shômyô vocals ).

Towards the end of the 1980s designed Eloy a large cycle of works entitled Libérations about female characters, however to this day remains unfinished. In this project, Eloy begins his intensive collaboration with singers such as Yumi Nara ( Butsumyôe, 1989), Fatima Miranda ( Sappho Hiketis, 1989) and Junko Ueda ( Erkos, 1991; ... kono yo no hoka ..., 1996).

Eloy founded his own publishing hors territoires to document his artistic works through the publication of books and compact discs.

Works (selection)

• " Equivalences " (1963), for 18 instrumentalists (10 ')
• " Faisceaux - Diffractions " (1970), for 28 instrumentalists (25 ')
• " Kâmakalâ " ( " The Energy Triangle ", 1971), for three orchestra groups, five choir groups, three conductors (approximately 32 ')
• " Shanti " ( "Peace", 1972-73 ), for electronic and concrete sounds ( 1:45 ', WDR Electronic Music Studio, Cologne )
• " Fluctuante - immuable " (1977), for large orchestra (20 ')
• " Gaku -no- Michi " ( " The Ways of Music", that is translated as the " Way of sound " from 0.1977 to 78 ), a film without images for electronic and concrete sounds ( 3:50 ', NHK Electronic Music Studio, Tokyo)
• "Yo - In" ( " Reverberations ", 1980), sound theater for an imaginary ritual, with a character- percussionist, electro acoustics, lighting ( 3:40 ' in 4 acts, Instituut voor Sonology, Utrecht)
• " A l' Approche du Feu méditant " ( "Coming Close to a meditating fire", 1983), for 27 instrumentalists from the " Gagaku " orchestra in Japan, and two Buddhist monk choirs from the Shingon and Tendai sects ( 2:30 ') with six percussionists
• " Anahata " ( "Primal Vibration", 1984-86 ), for two voices of Buddhist monks soloist singers, three instrumentalists from the " Gagaku " orchestra, percussion, electroacoustics, lights ( 3:45 ')
• " Butsumyôe " and " Sappho Hikètis " ( " The Ceremony of Repentance ", " Sappho imploring ," 1989), for two female voices (extended vocal techniques ), electroacoustics ( 1:00 ')
• " Erkos " ( "Song, Praise", 1990-91 ), for a Satsuma Biwa soloist and vocalist ( " Shomyo " techniques ), with electro acoustics ( 1:05 ', WDR Electronic Music Studio, Cologne )
• "Two American Women " (1996), for two female voices ( singing- speaking techniques ), with electro acoustics
• " ... Kono yo no hoka ... " ("... this world beyond ...", 1996), solo -voice (extended vocal technics, beyond the " Shômyô " ones; 30 ')
• " Galaxies " (1996), electroacoutics, with vocal solo ( 1h15 ' )

Bibliography

• Ludovic Bargheon: Eloy, Jean -Claude. In: Ludwig Finscher (ed. ): The music past and present. People subband 6, Barenreiter, Kassel 1996, 286-287 Sp.
• Marie -José Chauvin: Entretien avec Jean -Claude Eloy. In: Courrier musical de France 36 ( October - December ) 1971.
• Aimée -Catherine Deloche: Eloy, le temps revisited. In: Silences. 1, 1985, pp. 159-167.
• Jean -Claude Eloy: Improvisation: Refuge, utopia or necessity? In: The world of music / The World of Music / Le monde de la musique. 12, no 3, 1970, pp. 6-21. ( In English, German and French. )
• Jean -Claude Eloy: Musiques d' Orient, notre univers familier. In: La musique dans la vie. 2 (" Rayonnement des cultures africaines, regards sur les civilizations asiatiques, quelques problèmes du monde actuel "). ORTF, Paris 1969, pp. 183-215.
• Jean -Claude Eloy: L' autre versant des sons: Vers de nouvelles frontières de la musique des territoires? In: La musique et le monde. ( Internationale de l' imaginaire, nouvelle serie 4), Edited by Françoise Gründ. Actes Sud, Arles 1995, ISBN 2-7427-0280-6, pp. 193-231.
• John Fields: The Structural Function of Wind Role transformation. In: JC Eloy: Equivalences. Ex Tempore: A Journal of Compositional and Theoretical Research in Music 1, no 1, 1981, pp. 18-35.
• Tona Green: Interview with Jean -Claude Éloy. In: Computer Music Journal. 15, no 1 ( Spring) 1991, pp. 14-19.
• François -Bernard Mâche: Une nouvelle oeuvre de Messiaen. In: Mercure de France. 1202 ( December ) 1963, pp. 828-831. Reprint in: François -Bernard Mâche: Un demi - siècle de musique contemporaine ... et toujours. Collection sémiotique et philosophie de la musique (L' Harmattan, Paris 2000), pp. 28-31. ( discusses Jean -Claude Éloy 's Équivalences as well as Messiaen 's Sept haikai )