André Laporte is a Belgian

Belgium

Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...

 composer

Composer

A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...

.

Biography

Laporte studied music with Edgard de Laet, Flor Peeters

Flor Peeters

Flor Peeters was a Flemish composer, organist and teacher.-Biography:Born and raised in the village of Tielen , he was the youngest child in a family of eleven...

, and Marinus De Jong at the Lemmens Institute in Mechelen

Mechelen

Mechelen Footnote: Mechelen became known in English as 'Mechlin' from which the adjective 'Mechlinian' is derived...

, and musicology

Musicology

Musicology is the scholarly study of music. The word is used in narrow, broad and intermediate senses. In the narrow sense, musicology is confined to the music history of Western culture...

 and philosophy

Philosophy

Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...

 at the Catholic University of Leuven

Catholic University of Leuven

The Catholic University of Leuven, or of Louvain, was the largest, oldest and most prominent university in Belgium. The university was founded in 1425 as the University of Leuven by John IV, Duke of Brabant and approved by a Papal bull by Pope Martin V.During France's occupation of Belgium in the...

 from 1953 to 1957. From 1960 to 1964 he participated annually in the Internationale Ferienkurse für Neue Musik in Darmstadt

Darmstadt

Darmstadt is a city in the Bundesland of Hesse in Germany, located in the southern part of the Rhine Main Area.The sandy soils in the Darmstadt area, ill-suited for agriculture in times before industrial fertilisation, prevented any larger settlement from developing, until the city became the seat...

, where he came into contact with Pierre Boulez

Pierre Boulez

Pierre Boulez is a French composer of contemporary classical music, a pianist, and a conductor.-Early years:Boulez was born in Montbrison, Loire, France. As a child he began piano lessons and demonstrated aptitude in both music and mathematics...

, Bruno Maderna

Bruno Maderna

Bruno Maderna was an Italian conductor and composer. For the last ten years of his life he lived in Germany and eventually became a citizen of that country.-Biography:...

, Luciano Berio

Luciano Berio

Luciano Berio, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI was an Italian composer. He is noted for his experimental work and also for his pioneering work in electronic music.-Biography:Berio was born at Oneglia Luciano Berio, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI (October 24, 1925 – May 27, 2003) was an Italian...

, György Ligeti

György Ligeti

György Sándor Ligeti was a composer of contemporary classical music. Born in a Hungarian Jewish family in Transylvania, Romania, he briefly lived in Hungary before becoming an Austrian citizen.-Early life:...

, and Mauricio Kagel

Mauricio Kagel

Mauricio Kagel was a German-Argentine composer. He was notable for his interest in developing the theatrical side of musical performance .-Biography:...

, amongst others (Mertens and Volborth-Danys 2001). In addition, he attended the Second and Third Cologne Courses for New Music organized by Karlheinz Stockhausen

Karlheinz Stockhausen

Karlheinz Stockhausen was a German composer, widely acknowledged by critics as one of the most important but also controversial composers of the 20th and early 21st centuries. Another critic calls him "one of the great visionaries of 20th-century music"...

, in 1964–65 and 1965–66 where, in addition to Stockhausen, he had the opportunity of meeting the composers Henri Pousseur

Henri Pousseur

Henri Pousseur was a Belgian composer.-Biography:Pousseur studied at the Academies of Music in Liège and in Brussels from 1947 to 1953. He was closely associated with Pierre Froidebise and André Souris...

 and Luciano Berio

Luciano Berio

Luciano Berio, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI was an Italian composer. He is noted for his experimental work and also for his pioneering work in electronic music.-Biography:Berio was born at Oneglia Luciano Berio, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI (October 24, 1925 – May 27, 2003) was an Italian...

, as well as the conductor Michael Gielen

Michael Gielen

-Professional career:Gielen was born in Dresden, Germany, to opera director Josef Gielen. Through his mother, Rose, he is the nephew of Eduard Steuermann and Salka Steuermann Viertel. He began his career as a pianist in Buenos Aires, where he studied with Erwin Leuchter and gave an early...

 (Stockhausen 1971, 198–200).

Starting in 1953, Laporte taught music at a secondary school in Brussels

Brussels

Brussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...

. In 1963 he helped to establish the SPECTRA work group at the Institute for Psycho-Acoustic and Electronic Music (IPEM). In 1972, together with Herman Sabbe, he founded the Belgian section of the International Society for Contemporary Music (ISCM), and has been its chairperson ever since. Beginning in 1974 he taught music theory at the Koninklijk Conservatorium (Brussels)

Koninklijk Conservatorium (Brussels)

The Royal Conservatory of Brussels is a drama and music college in Brussels, Belgium. An academy for acting and the arts, it has been attended by many of the top actors and actresses in Belgium such as Josse De Pauw, Luk van Mello and Luk De Konink....

 where in 1988 he was appointed Professor of Composition, a post he held until 1996. From 1979–89 he worked at Belgian Radio and Television

Vlaamse Radio- en Televisieomroep

The Vlaamse Radio- en Televisieomroeporganisatie , or VRT, is a publicly-funded broadcaster of radio and television in Flanders ....

 (BRT, now VRT), first as a music producer, then as a program coordinator, becoming in 1989 director of production for the BRT Philharmonic Orchestra, and from 1993 until 1996, director of ensembles.

Style

Laporte’s earliest compositions, such as the 1954 Piano

Piano

The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...

 Sonata

Sonata

Sonata , in music, literally means a piece played as opposed to a cantata , a piece sung. The term, being vague, naturally evolved through the history of music, designating a variety of forms prior to the Classical era...

, are neoclassical

Neoclassicism (music)

Neoclassicism in music was a twentieth-century trend, particularly current in the period between the two World Wars, in which composers sought to return to aesthetic precepts associated with the broadly defined concept of "classicism", namely order, balance, clarity, economy, and emotional restraint...

 in character but, beginning in the 1960s, his work was increasingly influenced by the Darmstadt

Darmstadt School

Darmstadt School refers to a loose group of compositional styles created by composers who attended the Darmstadt International Summer Courses for New Music from the early 1950s to the early 1960s.-History:...

 avant garde

Avant-garde

Avant-garde means "advance guard" or "vanguard". The adjective form is used in English to refer to people or works that are experimental or innovative, particularly with respect to art, culture, and politics....

. His style is eclectic

Eclecticism

Eclecticism is a conceptual approach that does not hold rigidly to a single paradigm or set of assumptions, but instead draws upon multiple theories, styles, or ideas to gain complementary insights into a subject, or applies different theories in particular cases.It can sometimes seem inelegant or...

, drawing on a range of pitch materials, for example, extending from traditional triads

Triad (music)

In music and music theory, a triad is a three-note chord that can be stacked in thirds. Its members, when actually stacked in thirds, from lowest pitched tone to highest, are called:* the Root...

 to clusters

Tone cluster

A tone cluster is a musical chord comprising at least three consecutive tones in a scale. Prototypical tone clusters are based on the chromatic scale, and are separated by semitones. For instance, three adjacent piano keys struck simultaneously produce a tone cluster...

 and microtones

Microtonal music

Microtonal music is music using microtones—intervals of less than an equally spaced semitone. Microtonal music can also refer to music which uses intervals not found in the Western system of 12 equal intervals to the octave.-Terminology:...

, with such contrasting material often alternating within a single piece (Sabbe 1972; Laporte 2003). Though he often employs twelve-tone technique

Twelve-tone technique

Twelve-tone technique is a method of musical composition devised by Arnold Schoenberg...

, this is by no means an exclusive concern, and he often quotes music by earlier composers. For example, his opera

Opera

Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...

 Das Schloss (1981–85, based on Franz Kafka

Franz Kafka

Franz Kafka was a culturally influential German-language author of short stories and novels. Contemporary critics and academics, including Vladimir Nabokov, regard Kafka as one of the best writers of the 20th century...

’s The Castle), quotes from Berg

Alban Berg

Alban Maria Johannes Berg was an Austrian composer. He was a member of the Second Viennese School with Arnold Schoenberg and Anton Webern, and produced compositions that combined Mahlerian Romanticism with a personal adaptation of Schoenberg's twelve-tone technique.-Early life:Berg was born in...

 and Wagner

Richard Wagner

Wilhelm Richard Wagner was a German composer, conductor, theatre director, philosopher, music theorist, poet, essayist and writer primarily known for his operas...

, and the orchestra

Orchestra

An orchestra is a sizable instrumental ensemble that contains sections of string, brass, woodwind, and percussion instruments. The term orchestra derives from the Greek ορχήστρα, the name for the area in front of an ancient Greek stage reserved for the Greek chorus...

l work Nachtmuziek (1970–71) contains citations from Mozart

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...

(Sabbe 1986).

Compositions (selective list)

• Piano Sonata (1954)
• Fugue in the Phrygian Mode, for organ (1958)
• Ostinato, for organ (1962)
• Sequenza I, for solo clarinet (1964)
• Sequenza II, for three clarinets and bass clarinet (1965)
• Jubilus, for brass and percussion (1966)
• Ascension, for piano (1967)
• Ludus fragilis, for solo oboe (1967)
• Story: Actus quasi-tragicus, for violin, viola, violoncello, and harpsichord (1967)
• Inclinations, for solo flute (1968)
• De Profundis, for a capella choir (1968)
• Le morte chitarre (text by Salvatore Quasimodo), for tenor, flute, and strings (1969)
• Reflections, for solo clarinet (1970)
• Nachtmuziek, for orchestra (1970–71)
• La vita non è sogno, oratorio (texts by Salvatore Quasimodo and F.T. Marinetti), tenor, bass, narrator, chorus, and orchestra (1971–72)
• Icarus' flight, for piano and twelve instruments (1977)
• Transit, for 48 strings (1979)
• Das Schloss, opera in 3 acts, libretto by Laporte, after M. Brod’s adaptation of Franz Kafka (1981–85)
• Two Suites from Das Schloss, for orchestra (1987, 1988)
• Fantasia-Rondino con tema reale, for violin and orchestra (1988)
• De ekster op de galg, concert overture, after Breughel (1989)
• Testamento de otoño (text by Pablo Neruda), for baritone, harp, and strings (1990)
• Winter pastorale, for four bassoons and contrabassoon (1991)
• Seven Visions from the Apocalypse of Saint John, with an Introduction and Seven Trumpet-calls, for trumpet and organ (1993)
• Passacaglia serena, for orchestra (1994)
• Trois pièces, for piano (1997)
• Toccataglia, for piano (2002)
• Rieten-Ritueel, for 4 oboes, 2 oboes d'amore, 2 horns, bassoon, and contrabassoon (2005)

Sources

• CEBEDEM biography
• Delaere, Marc, Yves Knockaert, and Herman Sabbe. 1998. Nieuwe muziek in Vlaanderen. Bruges: Stichting Kunstboek. ISBN 90-74377-57-2
• Fábián, Imre. 1987. "Auf den Spuren von Alban Berg: die Kafka-Oper Das Schloss von Andre Laporte wurde in Brüssel uraufgeführt". Opernwelt 28, no. 2:24–25.
• Hooghe, Kamiel d’. 1998. "Een gesprek met André Laporte". Orgelkunst 21, no. 1 (March): 17–21.
• Jungheinrich, Hans-Klaus. 1987. "Grosser Stoff—Musik aus zweiter Hand: Andre Laportes Schloss in Brüssel." Musica 41, no. 2:163–65.
• Laporte, André. 2003. "De complementariteit van tonale en atonale systemen". In Onder hoogspanning: Muziekcultuur in de hedendaagse samenleving, edited by Marc Leman, 265–70. Gent: Rijksuniversiteit. ISBN 9054873566
• Löhlein, Heina-Harald. 1987. "Die unbeantwortbare Seinsfrage: Andre Laportes Kafka-Oper Das Schloss in Brüssel uraufgefuehrt." Neue Zeitschrift für Musik no. 3 (March): 36.
• Martin, S. 1987. "Andre Laporte: Das Schloss". Diapason-Harmonie, no. 324 (February): 21.
• Mertens, Corneel, and Diana von Volborth-Danys. 2001. "Laporte, André". The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, edited by Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell. New York: Grove's Dictionaries.
• O'Loughlin, Niall. 1972. "Change of Wind." The Musical Times 113, no. 1550 (April): 388–89.
• Plovie, Rony. 1998. "Ostinato per organo van André Laporte". Orgelkunst 21, no. 1 (March): 22–25
• Sabbe, Herman. 1972. "De Vlaamse componist André Laporte: overzicht van een evolutie," Mens en melodie 27:133–36.
• Sabbe, Herman. 1986. "André Laporte: Mimus eclecticus." In the program book for Das Schloss. Brussels, Théâtre La Monnaie (16 December): 21–36.
• Stockhausen, Karlheinz. 1971. Texte zur Musik 3 (1963–1970). Edited by Dieter Schnebel. Cologne: Verlag M. DuMont Schauberg. ISBN 3-7701-0493-5