Pierre Henry
The celebrated French composer Pierre Henry was among the pivotal forces behind the development of musique concrète, becoming the first formally educated musician to devote his energies to the electronic medium. Born in Paris on December 9, 1927, he began training at the Paris Conservatoire at the age of ten, studying piano under Nadia Boulanger and percussion under Felix Passerone while also attending the classes of Olivier Messiaen. Still, Henry had little regard for traditional musical instruments, preferring instead to experiment privately with non-musical sound sources; over time, he grew fascinated with the notion of incorporating noise into the compositional process, and perhaps unsurprisingly first attracted notice in performing circles for his prowess as a percussionist.
In 1949, Henry joined the staff of the RTF electronic studio, founded by Pierre Schaeffer five years earlier; he soon immersed himself completely in electronic music, heading the Groupe de Research de Musique Concrète throughout the greater part of the 1950s. Henry soon began compiling a "sound herbal," a catalog of any sound potentially useful from a musical standpoint -- everything from animal cries to editing techniques to speed variations, all of which he deemed superior to conventional instrumentation. It inspired 1950's Symphonie Pour un Homme Seul, a 12-movement work co-written by Henry and Schaeffer employing the sounds of the human body; solo pieces including 1951's Le Microphone Bien Tempere (the first attempt at notated musique concrète), Musique Sans Titre, and Concerto des Ambiguites (which combined live piano with its own recorded distorted sounds) all broke new ground as well.
In 1952, Henry produced the first musique concrète ever commissioned for commercial films when he scored Jean Grémillon's Astrologie; a year later, at the Donaueschingen Festival, he premiered Orpheé 53, the first musique concrète piece composed for the stage. Henry also frequently collaborated with choreographer Maurice Béjart, a pairing that yielded 1955's Arcane, 1956's Haut-Voltage, 1962's Le Voyage, 1963's La Reine, 1967's Messe Pour le Temps Présent, and 1971's Nijinsky, Clown de Dieu -- in all, he scored more than 30 films and stage productions during his long career. In 1958, Henry left the RTF, and in 1960 he teamed with Jean Baronnet to found the Apsone-Cabasse Studio, the first private electronic music workshop in France; concurrent was his realization that for musique concrète to evolve, it would need to begin incorporating the electronic aesthetics pioneered in other areas of the world.
Toward that end, in 1959 Henry composed both Coexistence and Investigations, trailed a year later by La Noire a Soixante, which fused musique concrète with pure electronics. Throughout the decade to follow his music adopted increasingly spiritual and meditative qualities; 1968's La Messe de Liverpool, in fact, was commissioned for the consecration of that city's Cathedral of Christ the King. Spoken Biblical text was also prominent in L'Apocalypse de Jean, which was debuted in Paris on October 30, 1968, at a 24-hour celebration of Henry's music. A year later, he premiered Ceremony, which included music by the pop band Spooky Tooth. By the 1970s, his primary interest was large-scale works complete with elaborate lighting effects, among them Mise en Musique de Corticolart and Kylderstück.
During the mid-'70s, Henry's projects frequently paid homage to his own inspirations -- 1975's Futuriste celebrated the Italian futurist Luigi Russolo and his 1913 work The Art of Noises, while 1979's La Dixieme Symphonie served as a follow-up to Beethoven's nine symphonies. Continuing to work regularly throughout the years that followed in a vast range of musical contexts -- he even collaborated with the American alternative rock trio Violent Femmes -- in 1997 Henry completed Interieur/Exterieur, a work commissioned by Radio France that he declared the culmination of his life's work. His influence on contemporary music was underlined by the concurrent release of the LP Metamorphosé, which featured remixes of his work by the likes of Coldcut, DJ Vadim, William Orbit, Fatboy Slim, and Funki Porcini.
© Jason Ankeny /TiVo
Similar artists
-
Scene De La Trappe
Classical - Released by INTERSECTION on Apr. 7, 2015
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
-
Le Microphone Bien Tempéré
Electronic - Released by Dnv on Dec. 25, 2022
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
-
Orphée Ballet (Remastered)
Alternative & Indie - Released by RevOla on Jul. 18, 2019
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Henry: Orphée ballet (Mono Version)
Classical - Released by BNF Collection on Jan. 1, 1962
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Henry, Corticalart I: Lévitation (Remix 2016)
Electronic - Released by Universal Music Division Decca Records France on Nov. 3, 2017
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Henry: Spirale (Remix 2016)
Electronic - Released by Universal Music Division Decca Records France on Nov. 17, 2017
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Saint-Exupéry & Mariage De La Feuille Et Du Cliché
Classical - Released by PROFOUND on Jan. 1, 1958
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Theme De Catherin
Classical - Released by INTERSECTION on Apr. 7, 2015
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Catherine Malade
Classical - Released by INTERSECTION on Apr. 7, 2015
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Malefices et musique concrete
Experimental - Released by SINETONE AMR on Nov. 29, 2013
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Panorama of Musique Concrete, No. 2
Pierre Henry, Pierre Schaeffer, Michel Phillipot
Electronic - Released by SINETONE AMR on Apr. 15, 2010
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Collection Musique Concrète, Vol. 2
Classical - Released by SINETONE AMR on Mar. 7, 2016
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo