Henri Pousseur
Encyclopedia
Henri Pousseur was a Belgian composer
.
and in Brussels from 1947 to 1953. He was closely associated with Pierre Froidebise and André Souris
. He encountered Pierre Boulez
, Karlheinz Stockhausen
and Luciano Berio
and thereafter devoted himself to avant-garde research.
In 1954 he married Théa Schoonbrood with whom he had four children: Isabelle (1957), Denis (1958), Marianne (1961), and Hélène (1965).
Beginning around 1960, he collaborated with Michel Butor
on a number of projects, most notably the opera
Votre Faust (1961–68).
Pousseur taught in Cologne
, Basel
, and in the United States at SUNY Buffalo
, as well as in his native Belgium. From 1970 until his retirement in 1988 he taught at the University and Conservatory of Liège where he also founded the Centre de recherches et de formation musicales de Wallonie. He died aged 79, on the morning of 6 March 2009, of bronchial pneumonia (Machart 2009).
in the 1950s, Pousseur's music employs serialism
, mobile forms, and aleatory, often mediating between or among seemingly irreconcilable styles, such as those of Schubert
and Webern
(Votre Faust), or Pousseur's own serial style and the protest song "We shall overcome" (Couleurs croisées).
His electronic composition Scambi (Exchanges), realized at the Studio di Fonologia in Milan
in 1957, is unusual in the tape-music medium because it is explicitly meant to be assembled in different ways before listening. When first created, several different versions were realized, two by Luciano Berio, one by Marc Wilkinson, and two by the composer himself (Sabbe 1977, 175, n. 86). Since 2004, the Scambi Project, directed by John Dack at the Lansdown Centre for Electronic Arts
at Middlesex University
, has focussed on this work and its multiple possibilities for realization.
In addition to his compositional and teaching activities, Pousseur published many articles and ten books on music, amongst which are Fragments Théorique I: sur la musique expérimentale (Brussels: Université Libre de Bruxelles, 1970), Schumann le Poète: 25 moments d'une lecture de Dichterliebe (Paris: Klincksieck, 1993), and Musiques croisées (Paris: L'Harmattan, 1997).
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
Pousseur studied at the Academies of Music in LiègeLiège
Liège is a major city and municipality of Belgium located in the province of Liège, of which it is the economic capital, in Wallonia, the French-speaking region of Belgium....
and in Brussels from 1947 to 1953. He was closely associated with Pierre Froidebise and André Souris
André Souris
André Souris was a Belgian composer, conductor, musicologist, and writer associated with the surrealist movement.-Biography:...
. He encountered 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...
, 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"...
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...
and thereafter devoted himself to avant-garde research.
In 1954 he married Théa Schoonbrood with whom he had four children: Isabelle (1957), Denis (1958), Marianne (1961), and Hélène (1965).
Beginning around 1960, he collaborated with Michel Butor
Michel Butor
-Life and work:Michel Marie François Butor was born in Mons-en-Barœul. He studied philosophy at the Sorbonne, graduating in 1947. He has taught in Egypt, Manchester, Salonika, the United States, and Geneva...
on a number of projects, most notably the 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...
Votre Faust (1961–68).
Pousseur taught in Cologne
Cologne
Cologne is Germany's fourth-largest city , and is the largest city both in the Germany Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia and within the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Area, one of the major European metropolitan areas with more than ten million inhabitants.Cologne is located on both sides of the...
, Basel
Basel
Basel or Basle In the national languages of Switzerland the city is also known as Bâle , Basilea and Basilea is Switzerland's third most populous city with about 166,000 inhabitants. Located where the Swiss, French and German borders meet, Basel also has suburbs in France and Germany...
, and in the United States at SUNY Buffalo
University at Buffalo, The State University of New York
University at Buffalo, The State University of New York, also commonly known as the University at Buffalo or UB, is a public research university and a "University Center" in the State University of New York system. The university was founded by Millard Fillmore in 1846. UB has multiple campuses...
, as well as in his native Belgium. From 1970 until his retirement in 1988 he taught at the University and Conservatory of Liège where he also founded the Centre de recherches et de formation musicales de Wallonie. He died aged 79, on the morning of 6 March 2009, of bronchial pneumonia (Machart 2009).
Compositional style and techniques
Generally regarded as a member of the Darmstadt SchoolDarmstadt 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:...
in the 1950s, Pousseur's music employs serialism
Serialism
In music, serialism is a method or technique of composition that uses a series of values to manipulate different musical elements. Serialism began primarily with Arnold Schoenberg's twelve-tone technique, though his contemporaries were also working to establish serialism as one example of...
, mobile forms, and aleatory, often mediating between or among seemingly irreconcilable styles, such as those of Schubert
Franz Schubert
Franz Peter Schubert was an Austrian composer.Although he died at an early age, Schubert was tremendously prolific. He wrote some 600 Lieder, nine symphonies , liturgical music, operas, some incidental music, and a large body of chamber and solo piano music...
and Webern
Anton Webern
Anton Webern was an Austrian composer and conductor. He was a member of the Second Viennese School. As a student and significant follower of Arnold Schoenberg, he became one of the best-known exponents of the twelve-tone technique; in addition, his innovations regarding schematic organization of...
(Votre Faust), or Pousseur's own serial style and the protest song "We shall overcome" (Couleurs croisées).
His electronic composition Scambi (Exchanges), realized at the Studio di Fonologia in Milan
Milan
Milan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...
in 1957, is unusual in the tape-music medium because it is explicitly meant to be assembled in different ways before listening. When first created, several different versions were realized, two by Luciano Berio, one by Marc Wilkinson, and two by the composer himself (Sabbe 1977, 175, n. 86). Since 2004, the Scambi Project, directed by John Dack at the Lansdown Centre for Electronic Arts
Lansdown Centre for Electronic Arts
The Lansdown Centre for Electronic Arts is a research centre of Middlesex University in the north of London, United Kingdom. It had a significant role in the early development of computer graphics and has continued to innovate in areas such as interactive media and sonic arts.The Centre undertakes...
at Middlesex University
Middlesex University
Middlesex University is a university in north London, England. It is located in the historic county boundaries of Middlesex from which it takes its name. It is one of the post-1992 universities and is a member of Million+ working group...
, has focussed on this work and its multiple possibilities for realization.
In addition to his compositional and teaching activities, Pousseur published many articles and ten books on music, amongst which are Fragments Théorique I: sur la musique expérimentale (Brussels: Université Libre de Bruxelles, 1970), Schumann le Poète: 25 moments d'une lecture de Dichterliebe (Paris: Klincksieck, 1993), and Musiques croisées (Paris: L'Harmattan, 1997).
Selected Compositions
- Sept Versets des Psaumes de la Pénitence for four vocal soloists or mixed choir (1950)
- Trois Chants sacrés for soprano and string trio (1951)
- Prospection for three pianos tuned in sixths of a tone (1952–53)
- Séismogrammes electronic music (1954)
- Symphonies à 15 Solistes (1954–55)
- Quintette à la memoire d'Anton Webern for clarinet, bass clarinet, violin, cello, and piano (1955)
- Scambi electronic music (1957)
- Mobile for two pianos (1957–58)
- Rimes pour différentes sources sonores for orchestra and tape (1958)
- Madrigal I for clarinet (1958)
- Madrigal II for 4 early instruments (flute, violin, viola da gamba, harpsichord) (1961)
- Madrigal III for clarinet, violin, cello, 2 percussionists, and piano (1962)
- Ode for string quartet (1960–61)
- Trois Visages à Liège electronic music (1961)
- Caractères for piano (1961)
- Votre Faust (1961–68), opera for five actors, four singers, thirteen instruments, and electronic music, libretto by Michel Butor. Several "satellite" works are related to this opera:
- Miroir de Votre Faust (Caractères II) for solo piano and (optional) soprano (1964–65),
- Jeu de Miroirs de Votre Faust for piano, soprano and tape (1964–65)
- Echos de Votre Faust for mezzo-soprano, flute, cello, and piano (1961–69),
- Les Ruines de Jéruzona for mixed choir and "rhythm section" (1978),
- La Passion selon Guignol for amplified vocal quartet and orchestra (1981),
- Parade de Votre Faust for orchestra (1974)
- Aiguillages au carrefour des immortels for 16 or 17 instruments (2002)
- Il sogno di Leporello: Parade 2 (de Votre Faust) for orchestra (2005)
- Apostrophe et six Réflexions for piano (1964–66)
- Phonèmes pour Cathy for mezzo-soprano solo (1966)
- Couleurs croisées for large orchestra (1967)
- Mnémosyne monody solo voice or instrument, or unison choir (1968)
- Mnémosyne II for variable media (1969)
- Les Éphémérides d'Icare 2 for a soloist, three-part concertino, and four instrumental quartets (1970)
- Crosses of Crossed Colors for vocal soloist, two to five pianos, six tape-recorder operators, two turntablists, and two radio operators (1970)
- Paraboles-Mix electronic music (1972)
- Vue sur les Jardins interdits for saxophone quartet (1973)
- Die Erprobung des Petrus Hebraïcus chamber opera in three acts, libretto by Léo Wintgens after Michel Butor (1974). Several "satellite" works are related to this opera:
- Chroniques berlinoises for piano and string quartet with baritone ad lib. (1975)
- Chroniques illustrées for large orchestra with baritone ad lib. (1976)
- Ballade berlinoise for piano solo (1977)
- Humeurs du Futur quotidien for two reciters and chamber orchestra (1978)
- Pédigrée for female voice and seven instruments (1980)
- Canines for voice and piano (1980)
- Flexions IV for viola solo (1980)
- Chroniques canines for two pianos with soprano ad lib (1984)
- Tales and Songs from the Bible of Hell four singers with real-time electronic transformation and pre-recorded 4 track tape (1979)
- La Passion selon Guignol for amplified vocal quartet and orchestra (1981)
- La Paganania for solo violin (1982)
- La Paganania seconda for solo cello (1982)
- Déclarations d'Orage for reciter, soprano, baritone, three improvising instruments (alto saxophone, tuba, synthesizer), large orchestra and tape (1988–89)
- At Moonlight, Dowland's Shadow passes along Ginkaku-Ji for shakuhachi, shamisen, and koto (1989)
- Leçons d'Enfer music theatre for 2 actors, 3 singers, 7 instruments, tape, and live electronics; texts by Arthur Rimbaud and Michel Butor (1990–91)
- Dichterliebesreigentraum for soprano, baritone, two solo pianos, choir and orchestra (1992–93)
- Aquarius-Mémorial (in memoriam Karel Goeyvaerts)
- I. Les Litanies d'Icare for piano (1994)
- II. Danseurs Gnidiens cherchant la Perle clémentine for chamber orchestra (1998)
- III. Les Fouilles de Jéruzona for orchestra (1995)
- IV. Icare au Jardin du Verseau for piano and chamber orchestra (1999)
- La Guirlande de Pierre for soprano, baritone and piano (1997)
- Navigations for harp (2000)
- Seize Paysages planétaires ethno-electroacoustical music (2000)
- Les Icare africains for solo voices, ad lib. choir, and orchestra (2002)