Alain Weber (8 December 1930 — 14 November 2019) was a French composer and music educator.

Training and activities

Born in

Château-Thierry Château-Thierry () is a French commune situated in the department of the Aisne, in the administrative region of Hauts-de-France, and in the historic Province of Champagne. The origin of the name of the town is unknown. The local tradition att ...

, Weber began his studies at the

Conservatoire de Paris The Conservatoire de Paris (), also known as the Paris Conservatory, is a college of music and dance founded in 1795. Officially known as the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris (CNSMDP), it is situated in the avenue ...

in 1941. First Grand

Prix de Rome The Prix de Rome () or Grand Prix de Rome was a French scholarship for arts students, initially for painters and sculptors, that was established in 1663 during the reign of Louis XIV of France. Winners were awarded a bursary that allowed them t ...

in 1952, he won the same year the Sogeda Prize for his ballet ''Le Petit Jeu''. Lecturer at the Conservatoire de Paris since 1957, he taught preparation for the teaching profession,

solfège In music, solfège (, ) or solfeggio (; ), also called sol-fa, solfa, solfeo, among many names, is a music education method used to teach aural skills, Pitch (music), pitch and sight-reading of Western classical music, Western music. Solfège is ...

and

counterpoint In music, counterpoint is the relationship between two or more musical lines (or voices) which are harmonically interdependent yet independent in rhythm and melodic contour. It has been most commonly identified in the European classical tradi ...

, then in 1970 he assumed the function of professor advisor to studies. The Grand Prix du disque français was awarded to him in 1982 for his television work ''La Rivière Perdue''. President of many juries, he was also a member of the symphonic commission of the SACEM (1980–83), then of the reading committee of

Radio France Radio France is the French national public radio broadcaster. Stations Radio France offers seven national networks: *France Inter — Radio France's "generalist" station, featuring entertaining and informative talk mixed with a wide variety of ...

. He carried out numerous educational missions abroad (Tunisia, Canada, Yugoslavia, Taiwan...). Alain Weber was an officer of the

Ordre national du Mérite The Ordre national du Mérite (; en, National Order of Merit) is a French order of merit with membership awarded by the President of the French Republic, founded on 3 December 1963 by President Charles de Gaulle. The reason for the order's esta ...

Technique and aesthetics

Weber's work focuses on an exploration of forms of writing that are constantly being renewed. Parallel to some serials works freely treated (''Variations pour dixtuor'', 1965 - ''Synecdoque pour hautbois'', 1970), he developed a writing in

quarter tones A quarter tone is a pitch halfway between the usual notes of a chromatic scale or an interval about half as wide (aurally, or logarithmically) as a semitone, which itself is half a whole tone. Quarter tones divide the octave by 50 cents each, a ...

(''Saxophone Quartet'', 1984 - ''Constellaire'', 1994). He also employed various techniques of indeterministic composition, such as certain uses of transparent sheets, which, seen from different angles, generate transformations of pre-established melodic and harmonic propositions (''Linear I, II, III'', respectively for saxophone and orchestra, for octet, and for sextet of

ondes Martenot The ondes Martenot ( ; , "Martenot waves") or ondes musicales ("musical waves") is an early electronic musical instrument. It is played with a keyboard or by moving a ring along a wire, creating "wavering" sounds similar to a theremin. A player o ...

, 1973–77). Fascinated by poetic forms, he knows how to reconnect with the spirit of the

pantoum The pantoum is a poetic form derived from the pantun, a Malay verse form: specifically from the ''pantun berkait'', a series of interwoven quatrains. Structure The pantoum is a form of poetry similar to a villanelle in that there are repeating li ...

(''Strophes'', 1965), and

acrostic An acrostic is a poem or other word composition in which the ''first'' letter (or syllable, or word) of each new line (or paragraph, or other recurring feature in the text) spells out a word, message or the alphabet. The term comes from the Fre ...

(''Études Acrostiches'', 1973), also inspired by the phonemes of

Jean Cocteau Jean Maurice Eugène Clément Cocteau (, , ; 5 July 1889 – 11 October 1963) was a French poet, playwright, novelist, designer, filmmaker, visual artist and critic. He was one of the foremost creatives of the su ...

's ''Poème de l'Étoile'' to create a vocal expression in

onomatopoeia Onomatopoeia is the process of creating a word that phonetically imitates, resembles, or suggests the sound that it describes. Such a word itself is also called an onomatopoeia. Common onomatopoeias include animal noises such as ''oink'', ''m ...

s (''Phonèminie'', 1983 - ''Le "Chan" du Potager'', 1984). He composed a musical tale for children (''Le rusé petit Jean'', 1984), but also instrumental works: his pedagogical research led him to use

random In common usage, randomness is the apparent or actual lack of pattern or predictability in events. A random sequence of events, symbols or steps often has no :wikt:order, order and does not follow an intelligible pattern or combination. Ind ...

, a rather flexible technique, assimilable by young performers (''Concertante'' for guitar and guitars, 1993). Each work poses a different musical problem, however, Weber's compositions evolve through a certain unity, never revealing a real break.

Selected works

* ''Variations'' (1965), for tentet, piano and percussion, édition Leduc. * ''Strophes'' (1966), for trumpet, string orchestra and percussions, édition Leduc. * ''D'Après Wols'' (1969), 3 watercolours for cello and orchestra, édition Billaudot. * ''Synecdoque'' (1970), for solo oboe, édition Leduc. * ''Études Acrostiches en forme de variations'' (1970), for piano, édition Leduc. * ''Epitome'' (1972), for solo cello, édition Billaudot. * ''Linéaire I'' (1973), for alto saxophone and orchestra, édition Billaudot. * ''Projections'' (1974), for percussion ensemble, édition Leduc. * ''Mantra'' (1974), for oboe and celtic harp, unpublished. * ''Ricordarsi'' (1975), for string ensemble, unpublished. * ''Linéaire II'' (1977), for Octet, unpublished. * ''Syllepse'' (1977), for piano, percussion, ondes Martenot, unpublished. * ''La Rivière Perdue'' (1982), for nine instruments and string orchestra, unpublished. * ''Phonèminie'' (1983), for mixed choir and instrumental ensemble, unpublished. * ''Quatuor de saxophones'' (1984), quarter-tone piece, unpublished. * ''Concertante'' for guitare and guitares (1993), an unpublished work of an educational nature. * ''Concert des Mille'': "Concerto pour un conservatoire" (1998), for the thousand students performing of the , unpublished.

Selected discography

* ''Concertino'' for French horn and orchestra, Disque Magic Horn DC 191110(1), 1958. * ''D'après Wols'', unpublished ORTF, Barclay 995040, 1969. * ''Bruissement'', Verseau M.10044, 1979. * ''Cantus'', Quantum SM 61, 1990. * ''Chant de Biwa'', BB-Music LC 9161, 1994. * ''Musique de chambre'', REM 311318, 1998. * ''Cadentiel'', FDS 57926, 1998.

References

External links

Biography, selection of works, discography, links, musical extracts, musicological interview
*
Biography of Alain Weber
on

Centre de documentation de la musique contemporaine The Centre de documentation de la musique contemporaine (Cdmc) is a French association based in Paris. Founded in 1977, it is an important resource centre for contemporary music. Introduction The Centre is a public documentation centre for con ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Weber, Alain French classical composers French male classical composers Conservatoire de Paris alumni Prix de Rome for composition French male composers 20th-century French composers 1930 births 2019 deaths People from Château-Thierry Officers of the Ordre national du Mérite 20th-century French male musicians