Philippe Manoury
Philippe Manoury is a French composer.
Biography
Manoury was born in Tulle and began composition studies at the Ecole Normale de Musique de Paris with Gérard Condé and Max Deutsch. He continued his studies from 1974 to 1978 at the Conservatoire de Paris with Michel Philippot, Ivo Malec, and Claude Ballif. In 1975, he undertook studies in computer assisted composition with, and joined IRCAM as a composer and electronic music researcher in 1980. From 2004 until 2012, Manoury served on the composition faculty at the University of California, San Diego, where he taught composition, electronic music, and analysis in the graduate program. After retiring from teaching at UCSD, he currently lives in Strasbourg, France.Music
Manoury's work is strongly influenced by Pierre Boulez, Karlheinz Stockhausen, and Iannis Xenakis, and his early work from 1972 to 1976 combines serial punctualism with the densely massed elements characteristic of the music of Stockhausen and Xenakis, and the paintings of Jackson Pollock. Works such as Sound and Fury are of interest because of the use of computer-assisted composition. Sound and Fury also uses a very large orchestra, which is symmetrically disposed, and makes quite extensive use of left-right spatial effects.Since the 1980s, Manoury has been closely associated with the American computer researcher Miller Puckette, first at IRCAM and subsequently at UCSD. The Sonus ex machina series of works, which were developed in collaboration with Puckette, are among the first pieces to utilize real-time audio signal processing, and Pluton was the first ever composition using Puckette's groundbreaking software Max.
His Abgrund—pour grand orchestre was commissioned by the Bavarian State Opera together with the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal and premiered by the Bavarian State Orchestra on November 26, 2007. It has been described as "a work that will neither disturb nor annoy a pleasant and perhaps harmless string of dissonant semi-climaxes, little jolts, and resting phases. It has an invigorating effect, is easy to concentrate on . . .". In it "Manoury mercifully knows how to use in ways far more discriminately than his contemporaries beholden to one bongo-frenzy after another". "Philippe Manoury hit the right mix between shallow and deep, melodic and dissonant, placating and strident, stasis and progress, simplicity and complexity. The steady run-up—stop—tighten—burst—relax scheme may not be novel at all, but it paid dividends ".
Writings
- Manoury, Philippe. 1998. La note et le son: Écrits et entretiens, 1981-1998, with a foreword by Danielle Cohen-Levinas. Musique et musicologie: Les dialogues. Paris: L'Harmattan.
- Manoury, Philippe. 2001. Entretiens avec Daniela Langer. Paris : Musica falsa.
Selected compositions
;Operas60e parallèle for 9 singers, large orchestra and electronics K… La frontière, chamber opera for 6 singers, 9 instruments and electronics La nuit de Gutenberg, opera in a prologue and 12 scenes. Premiered at the Opéra national du Rhin, Strasbourg, 24 September 2011;Orchestral worksNuméro huit, op. 8 Pentaphone, 5 Pieces for large orchestra, op. 24 Prelude and Wait Sound and Fury
;ConcertosEcho-Daimónon, for piano, electronics and large orchestra Bref Aperçu sur l'Infini for cello and orchestra
;Chamber musicNuméro cinq for piano and 13 instruments, op. 5 Instantanés
- * Version La Rochelle, op. 10a
- * Version étude, op. 10b
- * Version Baden-Baden, op. 10c La Partition du ciel and de l’enfer, op. 19 Passacaille pour Tokyo for piano and 17 instruments Fragments pour un portrait, 7 Pieces for ensemble of 30 instruments Épitaphe for 7 instruments, op. 29 Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man for 10 instruments Identités remarquables for 23 instruments Strange Ritual for 21 instruments Focus Le tempérament variable
- String Quartet, op. 6 Musique I for 2 harps, guitar, mandolin and 2 percussionists Musique II for 7 brass and 2 marimbas, op. 14 Petit aleph Solo de vibraphone Le livre des claviers, Six pieces for 6 percussionists Deux mélodies Michigan Trio for clarinet, violin and piano Gestes for string trio Métal for sixxens sextett Ultima for clarinet, cello and piano Last for bass-clarinet and bass-marimba Stringendo for string quartet
- Chaconne for solo cello and 6 cellos
- Partita I for viola and live electronics Tensio for string quartet and live electronics
- Sonata for 2 pianos Cryptophonos Puzzle
- Toccata from de « Passacaille pour Tokyo »La ville Veränderungen
Discography
- "Fragments pour un portrait" – Ensemble Intercontemporain, Kairos, 0012922KAI, 2009Quatuor à cordes – Quatuor Arditti MFA, Harmonia Mundi, C 5139, 1984Cryptophonos – Claude Helffer MFA Harmonia Mundi, C 5172, 1986Petit Aleph – Pierre-André Valade, ADDA, 581 075, 1988Zeitlauf – Groupe Vocal de France, Ensemble Intercontemporain, conducted by Peter Eotvös, Erato, ECD, 75552, 1990Le livre des claviers – Les percussions de Strasbourg, Philips Classics, 444 218–2, 1993Epitaphe – Ensemble FA, conducted by Dominique My, MFA 216007, 1995Jupiter and La Partition du Ciel et de l'Enfer – Sophie Cherrier and Ensemble Intercontemporain. Conducted by Pierre Boulez. In Compositeurs d'aujourd'hui, Adès, 206 062, 1996Pluton – Ilmo Ranta, piano, Technique Ircam Ondine Records, ODE 888–2, 199660ème parallèle – Orchestre de Paris, conducted by David Robertson, Naxos 8.554249/50, 1997En écho and Neptune – Donatienne Michel-Dansac ; Roland Auzet, Florent Jodelet, and Eve Payeur, Technique Ircam ACCORD, 465 526–2, 1998Complete Chamber Music – Ensemble Accroche Note, Assai 222052, 2002
Awards and recognition
- Officier of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, 2014