Luc Ferrari  

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"En France, se crée bientôt un véritable vivier de compositeurs purement acousmatiques : François Bayle (Espaces inhabitables, 1967), Pierre Boeswillwald (Sur les chemins de Venise, 1983), Michel Chion (Requiem, 1973), Christian Clozier (Quasars, 1980), Luc Ferrari (Hétérozygote, 1964), Jacques Lejeune (Parages, 1974), Bernard Parmegiani (De natura sonorum, 1975), Jean-Claude Risset (Mutations, 1969), Alain Savouret (L’Arbre et coetera, 1972)…" --Sholem Stein

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Luc Ferrari (February 5, 1929August 22, 2005) was a French composer, particularly noted for his tape music, known for such works as Presque rien, numéro 1 (1970) an early soundscape composition.

Contents

Biography

Luc Ferrari trained in music since a very young age and continued his composition and piano studies, until a case of tuberculosis in his youth interrupted his career as a pianist. From then on he mostly concentrated on musical composition. During this illness he had the opportunity to become acquainted with the radio receiver, with the pioneers such as Schönberg, Berg, Webern and others who strengthened him in his resolution to dissociate himself from the instruction of his first conservatoires.

He participated from 1954 to 1958 in the “Internationale Ferienkurse Darmstadt” - international vacation courses, where he had friendly relations with Karlheinz Stockhausen, Luigi Nono, Luciano Berio, Henry Pousseur, John Cage, Edgard Varèse. Later and afterwards Pierre Schaeffer still increased his urge to break the dams which force the musical traditions until then. Ferrari could only withdraw himself from dogmas.

Overwhelmed by «Déserts» from Edgard Varèse, he likewise discovered at the broadcast, he decided immediately in the year 1954 to visit him in New York. He dedicated this trip of several weeks on a freighter to the composition of piano pieces. His attraction to the musique concrète and his collaboration with Pierre Schaeffer from 1957 to 1966 led him to extend the notion of abstract music, to want to tear the membrane between the genres. The first portable tape recorders allowed him to collect outside of the studios the sound for his piece Hétérozygote, his first composition that he calls - with a smile, - « anecdotic music » - : «I want that the gesture of taking sounds outside allows my admission to the social. » There is no doubt that this composition from 1963-64 revealed his mind of freedom. From then on, his activities proved this as well as his deep attention to the society, his character open in all directions, marking his work within the most different areas such as films; writings; installations; symphonic works or for ensembles; works, in which he connected instruments with recorded sounds; spectacle-concert; multimedia; electroacoustic works; radio plays and also, starting from 1999, his work with experimental DJs and improvisation. Besides his inclination to the society, to the mixture of genres, his sense of humor, sensuality narration, perversion, to the anecdotic, Ferrari’s compositions transmit his revolt, his desire and his love for life.

With the films of 1965-66 for the Service de la Recherche of the O.R.T.F Les Grandes Répétitions - the important rehearsals - (INA), which he realizes with Gérard Patris, and which opened the spirit of the composers and pioneers such as Messiaen, Stockhausen, Varèse, Hermann Scherchen, Cecil Taylor, it happened for the first time that contemporary music was presented on French television. These are unique documents coveted by a large world of music.

The Concepts

Another turn in his music was for Ferrari: Presque Rien ou le lever du Jour au Bord de la Mer - almost nothing or daybreak at the sea -. This piece illustrates or rather suggests unconsciously a minimalist process, about which one will speak much in the following years.

Concept of the Unit

Indeed, Presque Rien our le lever du Jour au Bord de la Mer, from between 1967 and 1970, is a composition, which materializes the break with the practices of the classical electro acoustics. Still more directly than what was called after Hétérozygote, anecdotic music, he requires for himself clearly the continuous sequence and the fixed sound image - like a slide - offering a slice of real as a work method and as means to escape from the habits. " « At the beginning the concept Presque Rien does not have anything to do with the music. One must carry oneself back into the time; in the sixties one said: noises on a side, music on the other one. » " Ferrari did not get involved in this play. He was concerned with making something coming from a deep desire without worrying whether this something fits into a category. The concept in his opinion cannot be defined as genre, as aesthetics or as technology, but only as idea. That means, that the concept at the beginning cannot be seized physically, but rather as a general impression, which one lends to a body. This concept consists of: only one place - only one time - a certain acoustics - components, which he continues to develop from one Presque Rien to the other.

Concept of narration (Presque Rien No. 2 - ainsi continue la Nuit dans ma Tête multiple) - and the night continues in my numerous head -

One of the main characteristics of the Presque Rien is the narration, Not in the sense to tell a story, rather to make observable the time suggesting that something occurs in a place. Against the sound landscapes, where the place is perceptible, the elements he uses, and which he calls everyday life sounds should, by the concept of a minimal and not eventful story stimulate to a journey in the time; the coincidence of the everyday life noises belonging to the daily gestures and consisting of substance, is the element that constructs the time. The intention to tell is there, but remains blurred.

Concept of the Lie or the Perversion (Presque Rien avec filles) - almost nothing with girls

The concept of the lie stimulates Ferrari, and to name it, is almost a provocation. He uses the term of the perversion precisely in this sense. A concept is relatively abstract, however it becomes alive with the change of time. This is exactly, what he calls Perversion. But since it’s his invention, he has no reason to remain loyal to his concept. If loyalty should be, so only that of the search for certain acoustics.

Concept of the Beauty (Presque Rien No. 4)

Ferrari believed for a long time, and the time helping, that beauty was a concept of the past, like a somewhat mallow and superfluous attribute. He believes from now on in the contrary that we should be concerned with the beauty, that it is indispensable for our reflection. Or don't we have the time any more to be in charge of beauty because hideousness exasperates us? He lived since some years in a suburb, where everything is ugly, inharmonious and wrong on its place, thus the harmony and the beauty appear to him as a necessity and not at all a trifle or a secondary matter.

Concept of the Disappearance (Presque Rien No. 5, - almost nothing with instruments -)

Indeed, the Presque Rien are in search of the beauty of the sound, the harmony of the sound. In the search for the harmony of relations and the times. Disappears the narration. Disappears the recording as memory of a place or a situation. Remains a kind of report, the presentation of some fewer elements, like a dilution and, how these find their place in the time. The matter In Presque Rien No. 5 is the play of the objets musicaux - musical objects -.

Exploitation of the Concepts

« Since autumn 99, I have undertaken the composition of a new series of pieces with the general title Exploitation of the concepts. My purpose is to use those concepts I experimented in the course of my life as a composer and to use them in all possible directions. »

  • Archives sauvées des Eaux (2000)

Exploitation of the concepts 1 - archives saved from the flood - (for 2 CD and Vinyls - 48 ') "The thought to use my archives resulted from the necessity, to update my tapes of these memories - which suffered in my studio a damage caused by water -. I have indeed analogue tapes with all recordings I made since 1960, and which I have used or not. While copying this material on CD I felt the need to convert this boring work into creative work. And instead of copying I began to compose with them. "

  • Cycle des souvenirs (1995 - 2000) - cycle of the memories -

Exploitation of the concept 2 (installation with 6 CD and 4 video projectors) - (duration: endless) "To use the memories is not new to me, who are always backdue regarding the autobiographies.What is different here is to manage together as well the sound as the picture. In the same way as I am a sound taker-composer, I am a here a picture taker-composer. Also the cycle of the memories means that all components are structured in cycles, which produce random encounters by their overlay. Therefore everything is rotating. "

  • Archives Génétiquement Modifiées (2000)

Exploitation of the concepts 3 - Genetically Modified Archives (memorized sounds) - (25') "While listening to my recordings from the seventies I suddenly felt the need, without nostalgia and without allegiance on the past, to make new from it. Also I took very large freedom and easiness concerning the concepts while exploiting them. Indeed, if I speak of it, the question is not to make recognizable the concept, as that was usual at that time, rather to recover this idea thirty years later, how it rubs against the other earlier experiences, how it deforms or takes differently form. Or disappears. Perhaps I like also to use the word „exploitation“ in a provocative sense - although a little frivolously - as a concept. Also I claim the right to use my ideas exactly the same way as my sounds. I listen and I make from it a present that is rich of memory.Thus these archives are fundamentally and even perhaps genetically modified."

  • Tautologies et Environs (2000 - 2001) - Tautologies and environments -

Exploitation of the Concepts 4 For 14 sound-amplified instruments and memorized sound (25 ') The Exploitation of concept 1. 3 and 4 use the same elements for the memorized material, but differently assembled and deeply changed. Here the composition for orchestra, using the ideas of the tautology, gives a completely new aspect to the memorized sound. Also one encounters as new the idea of the tautology used in the composition for orchestra, particularly if one refers to the earlier Tautologos."

  • Exploitation of the concept of the Autobiography

"Since the beginning I composed as many works for instruments or orchestra as electroacoustic or acousmatic pieces. In other words and, in order to approach more precisely my topic, I would speak here only of the electroacoustic pieces or those developed with technology. First unconsciously, then more and more aware came up to me that I worked on the field of the autobiography. Thus I can only retrospectively speak about the time that led me to this concept. This happened about 1962, while I worked on the project of an electroacoustic piece: Hétérozygote. I thus want to try to explain, how significant the simple gesture was to go out from the studio searching sounds outside. I went out with portable utensils, which were my property, i.e. with my microphones and my tape recorder. This was my equipment, and it was I.Whether one wants or not, I was here in an original situation of presence and instrumental recognition making of me without being conscious, a manufacturer of the autobiography. I was present, I held my microphone, I put on my tape recorder as soon as I considered it was good, I took the sound that occurred front of me at the time I decided. This sound was my choice, my moment of the life stored on my equipment. In other words, should the last sentence not be clear, this compositional gesture in the recognition of the even indistinct sound, recognizing the found object as the first condition of an emotional attitude, was the inevitable introduction of the composer’s present in real time and thus as an autobiographer. " In this sense were realized the radio compositions for the German broadcasts Südwestfunk and Hessischer Rundfunk,

Luc Ferrari wanted to remain young, not age. The life of this thus young 76 years old man expired in Arezzo on 22 August 2005.

Discography since 1990

  • Acousmatrix
Petite Symphonie Intuitive pour un Paysage de Printemps (1973-74)
Strathoven (1985)
Presque Rien avec filles (1989)
Hétérozygote (1963-64)
BVHAAST 9009 Acousmatrix 3 - 1990
  • Unheimlich Schön
Unheimlich Schön (1971)
Coll. Cinéma pour l'oreille
METAMKINE MKCD008 1993
  • L'Escalier des aveugles
Patajaslotcha (1984)
L'Escalier des Aveugles (1991)
Xavier Legasa / Donatienne Michel-Dansac / Michel Musseau (song)
Ensemble Le Banquet, Dir. Olivier Dejours
MUSIDISC 201302 - 1993
  • Presque Rien
Music Promenade (1964-69)
Presque Rien N°1 - le lever du jour au bord de la mer (1967-70)
Presque Rien N°2 - ainsi continue la nuit dans ma tête multiple (1977)
Presque Rien avec filles (1989)
MUSIDISC 245172 - 1995
  • Piano-Piano
Suite pour piano (1952)
Antisonate (1953)
Suite Hétéroclite (1955)
Visage I (1956)
Fragments du Journal Intime (1980-82)
Comme une Fantaisie dite des Réminiscences (1989-91)
Christine Lagniel / Michel Maurer (Piano)
Auvidis Montaigne MO 782110 - 1997
  • Cellule 75
Cellule 75 (1975)
Place des Abbesses (1977)
Chris Brown (Piano), William Winant (Perc.)
Tzadik USA - TZ 7033 - 1997
  • Interrupteur / Tautologos III
Interrupteur (1967)
Tautologos III (1970)
Ensemble de Musique Contemporaine de Paris, Dir. Konstantin Simonovitch
Blue Chopsticks USA BC1, distrib. France : Chronowax – 1999
  • Chansons pour le Corps - Et si tout entière maintenant
Chansons pour le Corps
Elise Caron (Song), Carol Mundinger / Sylvain Frydman (Clar.), Christine Lagniel (Perc.), Michel Maurer (Piano.), Michel Musseau (Synthesizer)
Et si tout entière maintenant (1986-87)
Symphonic story. (Prix Italia 1987) – Text by Colette Fellous
Anne Sée (Voice), Nouvel Orchestre Philharmonique, Dir. Yves Prin.
MODE records USA MODE 81 - 1999
  • Danses Organiques cinéma pour l’oreille
Danses organiques (1971-73)
ELICA mpo-3340 - 1999
vinyle LP ELICA 4VL 3704 – 2003
  • Far-West News
Far-West News Episode N°1 (1998-99)
Histoire du Plaisir et de la Désolation (1979-81)
Nouvel Orchestre de France, Dir. Michael Luig.
Signature, France ASIN : B00005Q4KU – distribution Harmonia Mundi – 1999
  • Cycle des Souvenirs - Exploitation des Concepts N°2
Cycle des Souvenirs - Exploitation des Concepts N°2 (1995-2000)
Blue Chopsticks USA BC8, distrib. France : Chronowax - 2002
  • Tautologos and other early electronic works
Étude aux Accidents (1958)
Étude aux Sons Tendus (1958)
Visage V (1958/59)
Tête et Queue du Dragon (1959-60)
Tautologos I (1961)
Tautologos II (1961)
Und So Weiter for piano and tape (1965-66)
(works from 1959 to1966) EMF and GRM
Gérard Frémy (Piano)
EMF CD 037 - 2003
  • Comedia dell'amore 224 (1992)
Performers and composers : Jean-Jacques Birgé, Francis Gorgé, Bernard Vitet and Luc Ferrari
Un Drame Musical Instantané "Opération Blow Up" GRRR 2020 - distrib. France : Orkhêstra / Les Allumés du Jazz - 1992
  • Impro-Micro-Acoustique (2001)
Performers and composers : Noël Akchoté, Roland Auzet and Luc Ferrari
Blue Chopsticks, USA BC12 - distrib. France : Chronowax - 2004
  • Collection
Collection de Petites Pièces ou 36 Enfilades pour piano et magnétophone (1985)
Jeu du Hasard et de la Détermination (1999)
Michel Maurer (Piano.), Françoise Rivalland (Perc.).
Les Empreintes digitales, France – distribution Abeille Musique (Nocturne) ED13171 – 2004
  • Les Anecdotiques
Les Anecdotiques - Exploitation des Concepts N°6 (2002)
SUB ROSA SR 207 – 2004
Grand Prix 2005 Charles Cros In Memoriam
  • Archives sauvées des Eaux
Archives sauvées des Eaux - Exploitation des Concepts N°1 (2000)
Version for Plastic, Milan 2004. By Luc Ferrari and eRikm
ANGLE RECORDS LIMITED, Italie CD 0008 – 2004
Grand Prix 2005 Charles Cros In Memoriam
  • Son mémorisé
Presque Rien N°4 (1990-98)
Promenade Symphonique dans un Paysage Musical ou Un jour de fête à El Oued en 1976 (1976-78)
Saliceburry Cocktail (2002)
SUB ROSA,Belgium SR252 2006
  • Far-West News Episodes 2 and 3
Far West News Episode 2 (May 1999)
Far West News Episode 3 (June 1999)
BLUE CHOPSTICKS BC16 CD September 2006
  • Et tournent les sons
Et tournent les Sons dans la Garrigue - Réflexion sur l'Ecriture N°1 (1977)
Archives sauvées des Eaux - Exploitation des Concepts N°3 (2000)
By the Ensemble Laborintus and eRikm
Césaré 06/03/4/2/1 France septembre 2006. Distr. Metamkine
  • Les ProtoRythmiques
Les ProtoRythmiques (2007)
EriKm (Luc Ferrari) and Thomas Lehn
CD ROOM40 RM417/ May 2007
  • Didascalies
Rencontres Fortuites (2003) for viola, piano and memorized sounds.
Didascalies (2004) for viola and piano
Tautologos III (1969)
By Vincent Royer and Jean-Philippe Collard-Neven
Luc Ferrari facing his Tautology – 2 days before the end, a film by Guy Marc Hinant and Dominique Lohlé
SR261 luc ferrari "didascalies" / cd+ dvd / May 2007
  • Sonopsys
Passage pour Mimes (1959)
J'ai été coupé (1960-69)
Selbstportrait oder Peinture de Sons ou bien Tonmalerei (1996-97)
Sonopsys 4 - Cahiers Musique Concrète/Acousmatique. May 2007
  • in OHM : Early Gurus of Electronic Music / 1943 - 1980
Ellipsis arts…… EA500-4 USA
  • in Asia - Trio d'Argent
Madame de Shanghai (1996)
Michel Boizot / François Daudin Clavaud / Xavier Saint-Bonnet (Flutes)
Musique d'Aujourd'hui 9701 MDA M7 847 – 1997
  • in An anthology of noise & electronic music / vol. #2
Visage V (1958-59)
SUB ROSA SR200 – 2003
  • in Early Modulations : Vintage Volts
Tête et Queue du Dragon (1959-60)
Caipirinha CP219 USA - 2000
  • in Archives GRM – CD 2/5
Etude aux Sons Tendus (1958)
Etude floue (1958)
Etude aux Accidents (1958)
Ina c 1032(2004) ADD – 750 - 276522
  • Chantal, or the portrait of a villager (1977-78)
stereo tape.
in collaboration with Brunhild Meyer.
Digital on-line edition 2008
ROOM 40
  • DVD: PRESQUE RIEN AVEC LUC FERRARI
Film by Jacqueline Caux & Olivier Pascal (2003-04) – 50’
Elica
  • Archives Génétiquement Modifiées (2000) – mémorized sound
  • Société II (1967)
for four soloists and sixteen instruments (Flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, horn, trumpet, trombone, 4 violins, 2 violas, 2 violoncellos, 1 contrabass. Soloists: 1 piano, 3 percussions.) recording from 1968 by the EIMCP dir. Konstantin Simonovich.
Robot Records, USA
  • A la Recherche du Rythme Perdu
for piano and memorized sound. by Wilhem Latchoumia
In Wilhem Latchoumia – piano & electronic sounds
Sisyphe013
  • Madame de Shanghai (1996)
for 3 flutes and memorized sound
In Manuel Zurria repeat !
Schachtel, Zeit C01
  • Archives sauvées des Eaux - Luc Ferrari with Otomo Yoshihide.
Bonus-Track (CD extra) for the first 2000 copies : « Slow Landing » Luc Ferrari with Otomo Yoshihide, Camera: Miyaoka Hideyuki and Nishihara Tazz Miyaoka
Disc Callithump CPCD-001




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