Pierre Henry - Continuo/Capriccio '2016

Tracks list

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 1950s 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 1951s 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 Grémillons 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 1955s Arcane, 1956s
Haut-Voltage, 1962s Le Voyage, 1963s La Reine, 1967s Messe Pour le Temps
Présent, and 1971s 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; 1968s La Messe de Liverpool, in
fact, was commissioned for the consecration of that citys Cathedral of Christ
the King. Spoken Biblical text was also prominent in LApocalypse de Jean, which
was debuted in Paris on October 30, 1968, at a 24-hour celebration of Henrys
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, Henrys projects frequently paid homage to his own
inspirations -- 1975s Futuriste celebrated the Italian futurist Luigi Russolo
and his 1913 work The Art of Noises, while 1979s La Dixieme Symphonie served as
a follow-up to Beethovens 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 lifes 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

Tracklist:
24:04 | 01. Pierre Henry - Continuo Part. 1
26:27 | 02. Pierre Henry - Continuo Part. 2
19:27 | 03. Pierre Henry - Capricioso

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