Gérard Pape (born April 22, 1955 in Brooklyn, New York) is a

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 Defi ...

electronic music Electronic music is a genre of music that employs electronic musical instruments, digital instruments, or circuitry-based music technology in its creation. It includes both music made using electronic and electromechanical means ( electroac ...

, author, and

Lacanian Jacques Marie Émile Lacan (, , ; 13 April 1901 – 9 September 1981) was a French psychoanalyst and psychiatrist. Described as "the most controversial psycho-analyst since Freud", Lacan gave yearly seminars in Paris from 1953 to 1981, and pu ...

psychologist. He is a former student of

David Winkler David (; , "beloved one") (traditional spelling), , ''Dāwūd''; grc-koi, Δαυΐδ, Dauíd; la, Davidus, David; gez , ዳዊት, ''Dawit''; xcl, Դաւիթ, ''Dawitʿ''; cu, Давíдъ, ''Davidŭ''; possibly meaning "beloved one". w ...

, George Cacioppo, William Albright, and

George Balch Wilson George Balch Wilson (January 28, 1927 – October 12, 2021) was an American composer who is known for his contributions to electronic music. In 1955 he won the Prix de Rome for composition. He taught for more than 30 years on the faculty of the U ...

. He became the director of Les Ateliers UPIC (now CCMIX) in 1991 and in 2015 authored a French-English bi-lingual book ''Musipoesc: Writings About Music'' that was published by Éditions Michel de Maule.
''Musipoesc: Writings About Music'' by Gérard Pape Pape has lived and worked in France since the early 1990s.

Biography

Gérard Pape studied

clinical psychology Clinical psychology is an integration of social science, theory, and clinical knowledge for the purpose of understanding, preventing, and relieving psychologically based distress or dysfunction and to promote subjective well-being and persona ...

and music simultaneously at the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

, and is a practicing

psychoanalyst as well as a composer. After moving to France at the beginning of the 1990s, his compositions came under the influence of the Mexican composer Julio Estrada. Estrada shares with Pape an interest in psychoanalysis and focuses on what he calls "sound fantasies"—fantasies that occur "inside the head of the composer and take the form of sequences of sounds". Pape extended Estrada's conception by treating chaos as a formal concept. For example, in his opera-in-progress, ''Weaveworld'', Pape "employs sudden and unpredictable patterns in streams of sound in a plasma that draws from chaos models". The tape part for ''Makbénach I'' and ''III'' convolves "timbre paths", made from chains of sampled saxophone sounds, together with a dense series of grains following particular trajectories (produced by a computer program called Cloud Generator), in order to produce timbral transformations. Pape's 1995 chamber opera ''Monologue'' uses as text the

Samuel Beckett Samuel Barclay Beckett (; 13 April 1906 – 22 December 1989) was an Irish novelist, dramatist, short story writer, theatre director, poet, and literary translator. His literary and theatrical work features bleak, impersonal and tragicomic expe ...

play '' A Piece of Monologue''. His most important work is ''Feu toujours vivant'' for large orchestra and 4 sampler keyboards (1997), which was commissioned by

Art Zoyd Art Zoyd is a French band formed in 1969, mixing free jazz, progressive rock and avant-garde electronica. Gérard Hourbette was the band's director and composer until his death in May 2018. Another key member of the band was Thierry Zaboitzeff, w ...

and the Orchestre national de Lille, conducted by

Jean-Claude Casadesus Jean-Claude Probst (born 7 December 1935), known professional as Jean-Claude Casadesus, is a French conductor. Biography Casadesus was born in Paris on 7 December 1935, the son of actress Gisèle Casadesus and her husband Lucien Pascal. He beg ...

. In 2007, Gerard Pape created the ''CLSI ensemble'' (Circle for the Liberation of Sounds & Images) with various musicians and composers such as Olga Krashenko,

Paul Méfano Paul Méfano (March 6, 1937 – September 15, 2020), was a French composer and conductor. Biography Paul Méfano was born in Basra, Iraq. He pursued musical studies at the École Normale de Musique de Paris, and then later at the Paris Conservat ...

, Jacqueline Méfano, Lissa Meridan, Michael Kinney, Martin Phelps, Rodolphe Bourotte, Stefan Tiedje, and Jean-Baptiste Favory.

Compositions

Orchestra

* ''Cosmos'', symphony for large orchestra and tape (1985) * ''Three Faces of Death'', for orchestra (1988–89) * ''Feu toujours vivant'', for large orchestra and four samplers (1997)

Opera and musical theater

* ''Ivan and Rena'' (text: Gérard Pape), music drama for reciter, three vocal soloists, orchestra, and tape (1983–84) * ''A Little Girl Dreams of Taking the Veil'', surrealist opera for tape and slides; texts and slides by Max Ernst (1990) * ''Monologue'', chamber opera based on Samuel Beckett’s play, ''A Piece of Monologue'', for bass voice and eight-channel tape (1995) * ''Weaveworld'' (in progress), after the novel by Clive Barker ** ''Battle'', for four vocal soloists and tape (1996), ** ''Weaveworld Prologue'', for bass, flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, trumpet, trombone, horn, percussion, 2 violins, viola, cello, contrabass (1998) * ''Les Cenci'', opera in four acts, for seven vocal soloists, orchestra of 24 flutes, three percussionists, tape, and live electronics (text:

Antonin Artaud Antoine Marie Joseph Paul Artaud, better known as Antonin Artaud (; 4 September 1896 – 4 March 1948), was a French writer, poet, dramatist, visual artist, essayist, actor and theatre director. He is widely recognized as a major figure of the E ...

) (2000– )

Chamber music (with or without electronics)

* ''Soundbook'', for instruments and live electronics (1982) * ''Tableaux'', for acoustic and electronic instruments (1983) * ''In Memoriam: George Cacioppo'', for eight trombones, two percussionists, and tape (1984) * String Quartet No. 2 "Vortex" (1988–89) * ''X-Stasis'', for ensemble and tape (1992) * ''Le Fleuve du désir III'', for string quartet and tape (1994) * ''Le Fleuve du désir IV'', for eight solo violins, or one violin, tape, and live electronics (1994/2002) * ''Makbénach I'', for saxophone, ensemble, and tape (1996) * ''Makbénach II'', for saxophone and ensemble (1996)

Solo instrument (with electronics)

* ''Recordare'', for soprano recorder, live electronics, and tape (1984) * ''Cerberus'', for organ and tape (1987) * ''That Burning Thing'', for flute and tape (1989) * ''Le Fleuve du désir V'', for violin, tape, and live electronics (1994) * ''Le Fleuve du désir VI'', for viola, tape, and live electronics (1994) * ''Le Fleuve du désir VII'', for cello, tape, and live electronics (1994) * ''Le Fleuve du désir VIII'', for contrabass, tape, and live electronics (1994) * ''Makbénach III'', for saxophone, live electronics, and tape (1996) * ''Makbénach IV'', for trombone, live electronics, and tape (1998) * ''Aquarelles'', for basset horn doubling clarinet, tape, and live electronics (1999) * ''La Naissance du son'', for amplified cello (2002) * ''For Maurizio'', for amplified viola (2003) * ''Ascension au Purgatoire'', for percussion and computer (2004)

Vocal music

* ''Pour un Tombeau d'Anatole'', for voice, saxophones, and percussion (1984) * ''Catachresis'', for soprano and chamber orchestra (1987) * ''La Tristesse de la lune'' (text: Charles Baudelaire), for baritone, soprano (pre-recorded), and tape (1986) * Two Electro-Acoustic Songs for soprano, flute, and tape; poems by Dahlia Ravicovitch (1993) * ''Funeral Sentences'', for two sopranos, percussionist, and live electronics (1998) * ''The Ecstasy of St. Theresa (homage to Bernini)'' (text: St. Theresa of Ávila), for nine mixed voices and live electronics (2001)

Electronic music

* ''Triple Requiem'', for multiple tapes and turntables (1982) * ''Dreamwake'' (texts: Gérard Pape), for tape (1984) * ''Resonance'', for tape (1984) * ''Prélude Electronique'', for tape (1992) * ''Variations Varèsiennes'', for tape (1992) * ''Le Fleuve du désir II''. for UPIC-generated tape (1994) * ''Fabula'', for eight-channel tape (1999) * ''Mon autre Peau'', installation for 20-channel tape and DVD (based on paintings by Ana-Paula Portilla with digital video by Anney Bonney; texts by Ana-Paula Portilla, Parmenides, and the Upanishads) (1999) * ''Tantric Transformations'', for eight-channel tape and digital video; video by Anney Bonney (2000) * ''Clouds'' for six-channel tape (2002)

Sources

* * * Footnotes

External links

Composer Profile on Chronicle of the NonPop Revolution

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pape, Gerard 1955 births 20th-century classical composers 21st-century classical composers American male classical composers American classical composers Living people University of Michigan alumni 21st-century American composers 20th-century American composers 20th-century American male musicians 21st-century American male musicians