Clermont-Ferrand
Clermont-Ferrand (, , ; or simply ; ) is a city and Communes of France, commune of France, in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes regions of France, region, with a population of 147,284 (2020). Its metropolitan area () had 504,157 inhabitants at the 2018 ...
) is a French
composer
A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music.
Etymology and def ...
of
contemporary music Contemporary music is whatever music is produced at the current time. Specifically, it could refer to:
Genres or audiences
* Adult contemporary music
* British contemporary R&B
* Christian adult contemporary
* Christian contemporary hit radio
* Con ...
.
Biography
Born into a family of musicians, he is a former student of Émile Passani and
Olivier Messiaen
Olivier Eugène Prosper Charles Messiaen (, ; ; 10 December 1908 – 27 April 1992) was a French composer, organist, and ornithology, ornithologist. One of the major composers of the 20th-century classical music, 20th century, he was also an ou ...
and has also received a diploma in Greek archaeology (1957) and a teaching certificate (Agrégation de Lettres classiques, 1958). He was a member of the
Groupe de Recherches Musicales
A group is a military unit or a military formation that is most often associated with military aviation.
Air and aviation groups
The terms group and wing differ significantly from one country to another, as well as between different branches ...
in
Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...
orchestra
An orchestra (; ) is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families. There are typically four main sections of instruments:
* String instruments, such as the violin, viola, cello, ...
choral
A choir ( ), also known as a chorale or chorus (from Latin ''chorus'', meaning 'a dance in a circle') is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform or in other words ...
,
vocal
The human voice consists of sound made by a human being using the vocal tract, including talking, singing, laughing, crying, screaming, shouting, humming or yelling. The human voice frequency is specifically a part of human sound producti ...
and
piano
A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an Action (music), action mechanism where hammers strike String (music), strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a c ...
works. He has been a member of the
Académie des Beaux-Arts
The (; ) is a French learned society based in Paris. It is one of the five academies of the . The current president of the academy (2021) is Alain-Charles Perrot, a French architect.
Background
The academy was created in 1816 in Paris as a me ...
since 2002 and occupies the chair of the late
Iannis Xenakis
Giannis Klearchou Xenakis (also spelled for professional purposes as Yannis or Iannis Xenakis; , ; 29 May 1922 – 4 February 2001) was a Romanian-born Greek-French avant-garde composer, music theorist, architect, performance director and enginee ...
.
Mâche's ''Music, Myth and Nature, or The Dolphins of Arion'' (''Musique, mythe, nature, ou les Dauphins d'Arion'') (1983, 1992 ), which as a whole argues for a return in composition to mythic thought, includes a study of "ornitho-musicology" using a technique of
Nicolas Ruwet
Nicolas Ruwet (31 December 1932 – 15 November 2001) was a French linguist, literary critic and musical analyst or Belgian birth. He was involved with the development of generative grammar,paradigmatic segmentation analysis, shows that birdsongs are organized according to a
repetition
Repetition may refer to:
*Repetition (rhetorical device), repeating a word within a short space of words
*Repetition (bodybuilding), a single cycle of lifting and lowering a weight in strength training
*Working title for the 1985 slasher film '' ...
-
transformation
Transformation may refer to:
Science and mathematics
In biology and medicine
* Metamorphosis, the biological process of changing physical form after birth or hatching
* Malignant transformation, the process of cells becoming cancerous
* Trans ...
principle. One purpose of the book was to “begin to speak of animal musics other than with the quotation marks”,Mâche (1992). ''Music, Myth and Nature, or The Dolphins of Arion'', p.114. . and he is credited by
Dario Martinelli
Dario Martinelli (born Andria, Italy, March 1, 1974) is an Italian semiotician, musicologist and composer.
He is director of the International Semiotics Institute, professor at Kaunas University of Technology, and is also affiliated to the Uni ...
with the creation of
zoomusicology
Zoomusicology () is the study of the musical aspects of sound and communication as produced and perceived by animals. It is a field of musicology and zoology, and is a type of zoosemiotics. Zoomusicology as a field dates to François-Bernard Mâc ...
.
The book also describes the conception and composition of pieces by Mâche, where, "As a starting point, he borrows a tonal model from reality which he then submits to a highly intricate process leading to
abstraction
Abstraction is a process where general rules and concepts are derived from the use and classifying of specific examples, literal (reality, real or Abstract and concrete, concrete) signifiers, first principles, or other methods.
"An abstraction" ...
." This technique leads Daniel Durney to describe Mâche as "one of the rare exponents of the naturalistic trend in music." Models often include human
speech
Speech is the use of the human voice as a medium for language. Spoken language combines vowel and consonant sounds to form units of meaning like words, which belong to a language's lexicon. There are many different intentional speech acts, suc ...
and
bird song
Bird vocalization includes both bird calls and bird songs. In non-technical use, bird songs (often simply ''birdsong'') are the bird sounds that are melodious to the human ear. In ornithology and birding, songs (relatively complex vocalization ...
. Given the extensive use of birdsong made by
Messiaen
Olivier Eugène Prosper Charles Messiaen (, ; ; 10 December 1908 – 27 April 1992) was a French composer, organist, and ornithology, ornithologist. One of the major composers of the 20th-century classical music, 20th century, he was also an ou ...
, Mâche avoided using birdsong recordings in his own work until 1969: ''Naluan'' for ensemble and tape from 1974, "systematically explores" the model of birds;Mâche (1992), p.189. while ''Sopiana'' of 1980 pits recordings of Malayan shamas, icterine warblers and marsh warblers against the virtuosity of a live flute and piano. Recordings of birdsong, insect sounds, and other natural phenomena such as raindrops are integrated into ''Le printemps du serpent'' for large percussion ensemble of 2001. Earlier in Mâche's composing career, recording of a poem by the modern Greek poet Giorgos Seferis, read by Mâche himself, formed the basis of the orchestral work ''La peau du silence'' (1962), and that of a text by
Paul Éluard
Paul Éluard (), born Eugène Émile Paul Grindel (; 14 December 1895 – 18 November 1952), was a French poet and one of the founders of the Surrealist movement.
In 1916, he chose the name Paul Éluard, a matronymic borrowed from his maternal ...
for ''Le son d'une voix'' for small orchestra in 1964.
Other major works include ''Kassandra'' for large ensemble and tape, which won the Italia Prize in 1977; ''Eridan'' (1986) and ''Moires'' (1994), both written for the
Arditti Quartet
The Arditti Quartet is a string quartet founded in 1974 and led by the British violinist Irvine Arditti. The quartet is a globally recognized promoter of contemporary classical music and has a reputation for having a very wide repertoire. They ...
; ''Kengir'' (1991), settings of ancient Sumerian love poems, and ''Manuel de résurrection'' (1998), setting texts from the Egyptian Book of the Dead, both written for the soprano Françoise Kubler and Ensemble "Accroche Note". Several of Mâche's works from the 1980s onwards make use of the sampling keyboard, notably ''L'estuaire du temps'' (1993) for sampler and large orchestra.
Published books
* (as editor) ''Music, Society and Imagination in Contemporary France'' (1993)
*''Musique, mythe, nature, ou les Dauphins d'Arion'' (Paris: Méridiens Klinksieck, 1983)
*''Music, Myth and Nature: or, The Dolphins of Arion'' (Harwood Academic Publishers, 1992) (transl. from the French by Susan Delaney)
*''Entre l'observatoire et l'atelier'' (Paris: Éditions Kimé, 1998)
*''Un demi-siècle de musique... et toujours contemporaine'' (Paris: L'Harmattan, 2000)
*''Musique au singulier'' (Paris: Éditions Odile Jacob, 2001)
*''François-Bernard Mâche: de la musique, des languages, et des oiseaux: entretien'' (by Bruno Serrou). (Paris: Éditions Michel de Maule, 2007)