Tristan Murail - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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Tristan Murail
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Tristan Murail (born March 11, 1947 in Le Havre, France) is a French composer associated with the "spectral" technique of composition.

Contents
1 Early life and studies 2 Music 3 Works 3.1 Orchestral 3.2 Ensemble 3.3 Chamber 3.4 Instrumental 3.5 Vocal 4 References 5 Specialty studies 6 External links

Early life and studies

His father, Grard Murail, is a poet and his mother, Marie-Thrse Barrois, a journalist. One of his brothers, Lorris Murail, and his younger sister Elvire Murail, aka Moka, also write, and his younger sister Marie-Aude Murail is a French children's writer. Following early studies in economics and classical and North African Arabic, Murail studied composition with Olivier Messiaen at the Paris Conservatoire[1] from 1967 to 1972. He taught computer music at the Paris Conservatoire and composition at IRCAM in Paris, where he assisted in the development of the Patchwork composition software. In 1973 he was a founding member of the Ensemble l'Itinraire.[2] Since 1997 he has been a professor of composition at Columbia University in New York City. He currently teaches composition at Mozarteum University of Salzburg in Austria.

Music
Murail is associated with the "spectral" technique of composition, which involves the use of the fundamental properties of sound as a basis for harmony, as well as the use of spectral analysis, FM, RM, and AM synthesis as a method of deriving polyphony.[3] Major pieces by Murail include large orchestral pieces such as Gondwana, Time and Again and, more recently, Serendib and L'esprit des dunes. Other pieces include his Dsintgrations for 17 instruments and tape, Mmoire/Erosion for French horn and nine instruments Ethers for flute and ensemble, Winter Fragments, for flute, clarinet, piano, violin, cello and electronics as well as Vampyr! for electric guitar.
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Murail also composed a set of solo pieces for various instruments in his cycle Random Access Memory, of which the sixth, Vampyr!, is a rare classical piece for electric guitar. Vampyr! is one of several works in Murail's catalogue that do not employ spectral techniques. Rather, in the performance notes, the composer asks the performer to play the piece in the manner of guitarists in the popular and rock traditions, such as Carlos Santana and Eric Clapton. Among Murail's awards are the Prix de Rome (presented by the French Acadmie des beaux-arts in 1971),[4] the Grand Prix du Disque (1990), and the Grand Prix du Prsident de la Rpublique, Acadmie Charles Cros (1992). Murail's works are published by Salabert and Editions Henry Lemoine.[5] His music has been recorded on the Una Corda, Metier, Ads, and MFA-Radio France labels. Besides Gerard Grisey and Georg Friedrich Haas, Murail is the main representative of spectral music.

Works
Orchestral
1970, Altitude 8000, for orchestra 1972, Au-del du mur du son, for large orchestra 1973, La drive des continents, for viola and string orchestra 1973, Cosmos priv, for orchestra 1975, Sables, for orchestra 1979, Les courants de l'espace, for ondes Martenot and small orchestra 1980, Gondwana, for orchestra 1985, Sillages, for orchestra 1985, Time and again, for orchestra 1991, La dynamique des fluides, for orchestra 1996 Le partage des eaux, for large orchestra 2004, Terre d'ombre, for large orchestra and electronic sounds 2007, Contes cruels, for 2 electric guitars and orchestra 2012, Le Dsenchantement du Monde, piano concerto

Ensemble
1969, Couleur de mer, for 15 instruments 1978, Ethers, for 6 instruments 1982, Dsintgrations, for 17 instruments and electronic sounds 1990, Allgories, for 6 instruments and electronic sounds 1992, Serendib, for 22 musicians 1993, La Barque mystique for ensemble 1994, L'Esprit des dunes, for ensemble 1996, Bois flott, for piano, trombone, string trio, synthetic sounds and synthesized sounds 2000, Winter Fragments, for flute, clarinet, piano, violin, cello, MIDI keyboard and computer 2001, Le Lac, for ensemble 2006, Lgendes urbaines for 22 instruments 2006, Seven Lakes Drive, for flute, clarinet, horn, piano, violin and cello 2008, Liber fulguralis, for ensemble, electronics and video
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2011, La Chambre des cartes, for flute, clarinet, horn, piano, percussions, violin, viola and cello 2012, The Bronze Age, for flute, clarinet, trombone, violin, cello and piano

Chamber
1970, O tremblent les contours, for 2 violas 1973, Les Nuages de Magellan, for 2 ondes Martenot, electric guitar and percussions 1974, Transsahara express, for bassoon and piano 1986, Atlantys, for 2 DX7 Yamaha synthesizers, from Random Access Memory 1993, La barque mystique, for five instruments 1998, Feuilles travers les cloches, from Portulan, for flute, violin, cello and piano 2006, Les Ruines circulaires, for clarinet and violin 2008, Garrigue, for bass flute, viola, cello and percussions

Instrumental
1972, Estuaire, 2 pieces for piano 1976, C'est un jardin secret, ma sur, ma fiance, une fontaine close, une source scelle for viola solo 1977, Tellur, for guitar 1977, Territoires de l'oubli, for piano 1984, Vampyr!, for electric guitar, from Random Access Memory 1992, Attracteurs tranges, for cello 1992, Cloches dadieu, et un sourire... in memoriam Olivier Messiaen, for piano 1993, La Mandragore, for piano 1995, Unanswered questions, for flute

Vocal
1995, ...amaris et dulcibus aquis..., for chorus and electronic sounds 2010, Les sept Paroles, for orchestra, chorus and electronics

References
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. ^ Kennedy, Michael (2006), The Oxford Dictionary of Music, 985 pages, ISBN 0-19-861459-4 ^ Kennedy, Michael (2006), The Oxford Dictionary of Music, 985 pages, ISBN 0-19-861459-4 ^ http://www.compositiontoday.com/articles/tristan_murail.asp ^ Kennedy, Michael (2006), The Oxford Dictionary of Music, 985 pages, ISBN 0-19-861459-4 ^ Editions Henry Lemoine, Paris (http://www.henry-lemoine.com/fr/catalogue/rechercheResultat.html? auteur=Murail&instrument=&x=32&y=38&titre=&genre=&collection=&media=&dispo=&editeur=&cotage=)

Kennedy, Michael (2006), The Oxford Dictionary of Music, 985 pages, ISBN 0-19-861459-4

Specialty studies
Humbertclaude, Eric (1999), La Transcription dans Boulez et Murail : de loreille lveil, Harmattan, ISBN 2-7384-8042-X

External links
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Tristan Murail official site (http://www.tristanmurail.com) Editions Henry Lemoine, Paris (http://www.henry-lemoine.com/fr/catalogue/rechercheResultat.html? auteur=Murail&instrument=&x=32&y=38&titre=&genre=&collection=&media=&dispo=&editeur=& cotage=) Excerpt from Tristan Murail lecture (http://www.ocnmh.cz/days2003_lectures_murail.htm) from Ostrava Days 2003, August 18, 2003 Tristan Murail (http://www.compositiontoday.com/articles/tristan_murail.asp) at CompositionToday.com (French) A biography (http://brahms.ircam.fr/composers/composer/2360/) of Tristan Murail, from IRCAM's website. Excerpts from sound archives (http://www.musiquecontemporaine.fr/en/search? disp=all&query=Murail&exp_inl=on&exp_aud=on&so=ta) of Murail's works. Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Tristan_Murail&oldid=547457240" Categories: 20th-century classical composers 21st-century classical composers French composers Columbia University faculty 1947 births Living people This page was last modified on 28 March 2013 at 15:22. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.

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