Gérard Henri Grisey (/ˈɡrɪzi/;French:[ɡʁizɛ]; 17 June 1946 – 11 November 1998) was a twentieth-century French composer ofcontemporary classical music. His work is often associated with theSpectralist Movement in music, of which he was a major pioneer.

Grisey was born inBelfort, on 17 June 1946.^[1] From a very young age, Grisey demonstrated enormous interest and talent in music composition and study, writing his first essay on music when he was 9 years old.^[2] His first instrument was the accordion, which he received as a Christmas present aged 5. He was very proficient on the instrument, twice winning first prize at the French national championship and competing in the accordion World Cup.^[3] He studied at theconservatory [de] inTrossingen in Germany from 1963 to 1965.^[4] There he took classes in accordion, as well as harmony, fugue, and counterpoint, before going on to theConservatoire national supérieur de musique where he studied withOlivier Messiaen from 1965 to 1967 and again from 1968 to 1972, while also working withHenri Dutilleux at theÉcole normale de musique in 1968.^[5] He won prizes for piano accompaniment, harmony, counterpoint, fugue, and composition at the Conservatoire under Messiaen's guidance.^[4] He also studied electroacoustics withJean-Étienne Marie in 1969, composition withKarlheinz Stockhausen,Iannis Xenakis andGyörgy Ligeti at theDarmstädter Ferienkurse in 1972, and acoustics withÉmile Leipp [fr] at the Faculté des Sciences in 1974.^{[citation needed]} Other studies were undertaken in the summer of 1969 at theAccademia Chigiana inSiena.^[4]

Grisey won thePrix de Rome, enabling him to stay at theVilla Medici in Rome from 1972 to 1974.^[1] While there he became friends withTristan Murail, with whom he founded the groupL'Itinéraire in 1973 along withRoger Tessier andMichaël Lévinas, later to be joined byHugues Dufourt. In 1974–75, he studied acoustics with Émile Leipp at theParis VI University,^[5][4] and in 1980 became a trainee at theIRCAM (Institut de recherche et coordination acoustique/musique) in the computer music course organized by David Wessel andMarc Battier. During the same year, Grisey went to Berlin as a guest of theD.A.A.D. (Berliner Künstlerprogramm des DAAD) program. He subsequently left for theUniversity of California, Berkeley, where he was appointed professor of theory and composition for the years 1982 to 1985^[1] or until 1986.^[5] After returning to Europe, he took up the role of professor of orchestration and composition at theConservatoire de Paris from 1987 until his death,^[1][5] while also holding numerous composition seminars in France (Centre Acanthes, Lyon, Paris) and abroad (Darmstadt, Freiburg, Milan, Reggio Emilia, Oslo, Helsinki, Malmö, Göteborg, Los Angeles, Stanford, London, Moscow, Madrid, etc.)^{[citation needed]} For notable pupils See:List of music students by teacher: G to J#Gérard Grisey.

Gérard Grisey died at the age of 52 in Paris on 11 November 1998 due to a rupturedaneurysm.^[5]

Grisey's music is often considered to belong to the genre ofspectral music, which he is credited with founding along with fellow composer Tristan Murail, although he later disowned the label in interviews and writings. According to British journalistTom Service, "His achievement has often been reduced to yet another of new music's fetishistic labels, 'spectralism' – a category that Grisey had rejected by the end of his life."^[6]

Nonetheless, he spent much of his career exploring the spectrum of tone colour between harmonic overtones and noise. In addition, he was fascinated by musical processes which unfold slowly, and he made musical time a major element of many of his pieces. He expressed the opinion that: "We are musicians and our model is sound not literature, sound not mathematics, sound not theatre, visual arts, quantum physics, geology, astrology or acupuncture."^[7]

• PassacagliaPour Madame Darrow, for accordion (1966)
• Échanges, for prepared piano and double bass (1968)
• Mégalithes, for 15 brass players (1969)
• Charme, for clarinet solo (1969)
• Perichoresis, for 3 instrumental groups (1969–1970)
• Initiation, for baritone, trombone, and double bass (1970)
• Vagues, chemins, le souffle, for clarinet and orchestra (1970–72)
• D'eau et de pierre, for 2 instrumental groups (1972)
• Dérives, for 2 orchestral groups (1973–74)
• Les espaces acoustiques – II –Périodes, for flute, clarinet, trombone, violin, viola, cello, and double bass (1974)
• Les espaces acoustiques – III –Partiels, for 18 musicians (1975)
• Manifestations, for youth orchestra (1976)
• Les espaces acoustiques – I –Prologue, for viola and optional live electronics (1976)
• Les espaces acoustiques – IV –Modulations, for orchestra (1976–77)
• Sortie vers la lumière du jour, for electric organ and 14 musicians (1978)
• Jour, contre-jour, for electric organ, 14 musicians, and tape (1978–79)
• Tempus ex machina, for 6 percussionists (1979)
• Les espaces acoustiques – V –Transitoires, for large orchestra (1980)
• Solo pour deux, for clarinet and trombone (1981)
• Anubis-Nout, for B♭ contrabass clarinet (1983) recorded by Ernesto Molinari,^[8] Fie Schouten,^[9] Carl Rosman^[10]
• Les chants de l'amour, for 12 voices and tape (1982–1984)
• Les espaces acoustiques – VI –Epilogue, for 4 solo horns and large orchestra (1985)
• Talea, for violin, cello, flute, clarinet, and piano (1986)
• Le temps et l'écume, for 4 percussionists, 2 synthesizers, and chamber orchestra (1988–89)
• Accords perdus: Cinq miniatures, for 2 horns (1989)
• Le noir de l'étoile, for 6 percussionists, tape, and live electronics (1989–90)
• Anubis et Nout, for bass saxophone or baritone saxophone (1990)
• L'icône paradoxale (Hommage à Piero della Francesca), for 2 female voices and 2 orchestral groups (1992–94)
• Stèle, for 2 percussionists (1995)
• Vortex temporum, for piano, clarinet (bass, Bb and A), flute (bass, C and picc.), violin, viola and cello (1994–96)
• Quatre chants pour franchir le seuil, for soprano and fifteen instruments (1997–98)

Sources

• Arrell, Chris. 2002."Pushing the Envelope: Art and Science in the Music of Gérard Grisey". Doctoral diss. Ithaca: Cornell University.
• Arrell, Chris. 2008. "The Music of Sound: An Analysis of Gérard Grisey'sPartiels". InSpectral World Musics: Proceedings of the Istanbul Spectral Music Conference, edited by Robert Reigle and Paul Whitehead, (pp. 318–332). Istanbul: Pan Yayincilik.ISBN 9944-396-27-3.
• Baillet, Jérôme. 2000.Gérard Grisey, Fondements d'une écriture. Paris: L'Harmattan.
• Brown, Jeffrey Arlo. 2023.The Life and Music of Gérard Grisey: Delirium and Form. Boydell and Brewer.
• Cagney, Liam. 2024Gérard Grisey and Spectral Music. Composition in the Information Age, Cambridge – New York: Cambridge University Press.ISBN 978-1-00-939952-4.
• Cohen-Levinas, Danièle (ed). 2004. "Gérard Grisey ou la beauté des ombres sonores. Paris: L'Harmattan / L'itinéraire.
• Grisey, Gérard. 2008. "Écrits ou l'invention de la musique spectrale", edited by Guy Lelong and Anne-Marie Réby. Répercussions. Paris: Musica Falsa.ISBN 978-2-915794-31-1.
• Grisey, Gérard, andTristan Murail. 1989.Entretemps, No. 8.^{[full citation needed]}.
• Hervé, Jean-Luc. 2001. "Dans le vertige de la durée (Vortex Temporum de Gérard Grisey)", Paris: L'Harmattan.
• Lévy, Fabien. 2002. "Gérard Grisey, eine neue Grammatologie aus dem Phänomen des Klangs" [Gérard Grisey, a New Grammatology from the Phenomenon of Sound]. In20 Jahre Inventionen Berliner Festival Neuer Musik, edited by I. Beirer/DAAD, pp. 18–22. Saarbrücken: Pfau Verlag.ISBN 3-89727-189-3.

• Biography and list of compositions,Casa Ricordi
• Interview with Grisey
• Excerpts from sound archivesArchived 18 July 2011 at theWayback Machine of Grisey's works

• 1946 births
• 1998 deaths
• Musicians from Belfort
• 20th-century French classical composers
• French male classical composers
• Microtonal composers
• École Normale de Musique de Paris alumni
• Academic staff of the Conservatoire de Paris
• University of California, Berkeley faculty
• Pupils of Henri Dutilleux
• Pupils of Karlheinz Stockhausen
• 20th-century French male musicians

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