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Pierre Henry |
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Info: Biography, Pictures, Discography of all CDs & DVDs |
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| Please help improve this article by expanding this section.See talk page for details.Please remove this message once the section has been expanded.Between 1949 and 1958, Henry worked at the Club d'Essai studio at RTF, founded by Pierre Schaeffer.Astrologie ou le miroir de la vie.Henry has scored numerous additional films and ballets.External links
Pierre Henry at All Music Guide
Biography (in French) from IRCAM
Discography of vinyl records.You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.Subsequent degrees and specializations were earned from the University of London, in the United Kingdom and in Quebec, Canada.He started at Alberta Hospital Edmonton in 1971 as a consulting psychiatrist.Henry undertook the Directorship of the Clinical Diagnostics and Research Centre (CDRC), Alberta Hospital Edmonton.All four positions have been held concurrently through present day.CDRC which he established and directs.The philosophy of the CDRC is to provide continuous improvement in the provision of assessment and treatment services through fundamental research and program evaluation.The CDRC provides a variety of tests of brain activity that is unique to a psychiatric facility in its breadth and scope.EEG brain mapping as well as auditory, somatosensory, and cognitive evoked potential recordings.Other assessments include recordings of autonomic nervous system modalities such as skin conductance and digital pulse volume.Basic research is conducted in the analysis of brain electrical activity in order to improve the understanding of abnormal cerebral mechanisms associated with mental illness and to improve the quality of assessment and treatment.EEG characteristics of normal subjects: A comparison of men and women and of dextrals and sinistrals.Mood, the right hemisphere and the implications of spatial information perceiving systems.Hemispheric laterality and disorders of affect.Cerebral aspects of sexual deviation.Handbook of Neuropsychology, Section VI; Emotional Behaviour and its Disorders.Influence of gender in schizophrenia as related to other psychopathological syndromes.Schizophrenia Bulletin Special Edition on Gender and Schizophrenia, Vol.In: Movement Disorders in Neurology and Neuropsychiatry, Second Edition, A.In: Progress in Electrodermal Research, Roy, J.Japanese translation by Dr.Japanese publishers Sozo Shuppan, Tokyo, Japan.Whether ionizing radiation is a risk factor for schizophrenia spectrum disorders?Luigi RussoloFollowersRandall SmithLes Rythmes DigitalesAnnette Vande GorneThe United States of AmericaSteve ReichChristian CalonBeatsystemMore...Pierre Henry at Amazon.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.Pierre HenryBy: Pierre HenryCredited Role:Main PerformerSong List: Prologue (Remixed By Chris The French Kiss), Psyche Rock (T...Decorez votre maison dune facon unique , Mosaique a partir de 50 euro.Pierre Henry at Amazon.Search Leading Offers For Everything Pierre henry
www.Buy MusicWant to see your products in Yahoo!Build your own online store or Advertise with us.Current Advertisers Sign InHelp improve Yahoo!Learn more about our paid syndication program.Pierre Henry was born in 1927 in Paris.Olivier Messiaen and Nadia Boulanger.Symphonie
pour un Homme Seul.Donaueschingen Festival in Germany.Concrete
and he remained in that position until 1958.Antiphonie which was a contrast between two sound groups.One key aspect of the career
of Pierre Henry is hybridization of ideas and technology.Jerks Electronique which sold over 150,000 copies.He also wrote L'Apocalypse de
Jean which describes the apocalypse.Variations
for a Door and a Sigh.One has to have in mind a certain construction,
a form.Everything has to be natural for me.We can't get rid of old equipment.The computer works instead of you ."Interview with Pierre Henry."Birthplace: Paris, FranceGender: MaleRace or Ethnicity: WhiteOccupation: ComposerNationality: FranceExecutive summary: Electronic music pioneerOne of the leading figures in the development of electronic music, Pierre Henry began his training at the Paris Conservatoire at the age of ten, initially studying piano and then composition with the likes of Olivier Messiaen.Symphonie Pour un Homme Seul, a piece generated from the various sounds created by the human body.Other more adventurous integrations would take place towards the end of the 60s, when Henry collaborated on a recording with the rock band Spooky Tooth.This approach would be taken up again in the 1990s with The Violent Femmes.Mise en Musiaue du Corticolart, which translated brain waves into audio and visual material.Spooky Tooth Collaborator 1979
Do you know something we don't?PIERRE HENRY
photo by S.Proust work) and "Le Livre des Morts Egyptien" (1990).Concrete music is not a music of today nor of yesterday.It comes from
a long way off.Many composers, artists, writers, painters imagined that
one day music would transform itself into a vast opera of new sounds, unprecedented
sounds, sounds that have never been heard of.As a child, my head was filled with new sounds, sounds that couldn't
be interpreted.And that is the peculiarity of concrete music.It resides
in the fact that it doesn't come from interpretation nor performance.And this imagination is linked
to a technique, to a way of doing.It is thought and
imagined and is engraved in the memory.Usually
when a musician leaves out a fragment, a chord, he leaves it out from his
score.So the second posit is to isolate a sound, keep it, record it and
than proceed to make manipulations, developments, imitation of old pieces,
and synthetic exploration of the nature.It's a spontaneous creation and at the same time it doesn't play, therefore
it keeps on being.Fortunately recording still exists.Now it's through
digital recording, before it was on a tape recorder and before that on
a soft record.Concrete music was born in Pierre Schaeffer's studio.Pierre
Schaeffer had the idea to produce sounds by means of different tools, by
splitting the attack of a sound, prolonging the sound by reverberation,
repetition, a sort of alchemy that doesn't exist in orchestral music.Q: What was the initial reaction to this music?There weren't many reactions because it simply didn't exist.When we
started it in 1948, 50 years ago, there weren't any researchers or inventors.There
were sophisticated organs.Thus concrete music is a music that was
invented based on nothing.This music cannot be played with instruments but with electronic tools.Q: Did you consider this music to be a stance against any particular
school of musical thought that came before it?There weren't any reactions against any school.Before, I was a normal music composer.We essentially wanted to
bring out a new music.We are different
from other musicians but we are not opposed to any music.Henri Michaux had lent me a record of Japanese music, sacred music and
I started doing something with it.It was an interesting way to begin,
more interesting than a flute.It had a different blow that we could play
off.Variation is the principle of
concrete music.Current
music is extremely polyphonic.Q: How did the sounds that you create literally come about?This music was still not codified, standardized
equipment such as the synthetics, before synthesizers.All current processes were discovered at that time.The anarchy was
to search for these processes but it wasn't a revolution.But it's not necessarily revolutionary in his
writing, in the way he composes.He is a revolutionary in the mind meaning
he has his own esthetic.Beethoven was a revolutionary compared to those
that preceded him.He has to stay in his studio and work everyday
by constantly trying out, listening, starting all over a piece.Musicians
don't have time to be revolutionary.It's like a photographer who makes try outs, does Polaroid, spotting.Music
proceeds from photography, cinema.It's a music that is connected to photography, to cinema, a little to
literature, and less to music because the music lies within you, you don't
learn it whereas you have to learn the rest.It is concrete because it is related to the body, to
the surrounding, to objects, to nature, to emotions.I'm currently composing a new piece in which I'm
trying to bring forth an emotion that will then be experienced by a public.Q: How important is rhythm to you?There is always a beat in my music.The
beat is what I find more interesting than something asymmetrical.Everything
has to be natural for me.It's a music that comes from nature, there are
rhythms in nature that can be qualified of elementary, surprising, aleatory,
that come and go.It's a music that must be drawn from technique
and be connected to what I'm trying to do that is inspiration, to the body,
some sort of cerebral trans.It's a music far too much connected
to physiological reactions and not enough to mental reaction.It has no
sensitivity, it's not surprising enough and it lacks poetry.Q: Do you think it should also have a soul to it?Music should consider the
past as much as the future.So we should begin illustrating this future with futurist
projections such as the apocalypse, by emphasizing changes, and by pointing
out the differences in each centuries, and that there is an evolution.Concrete music was precarious, very difficult because sounds were almost
immediately damaged.There are many things we can do with digital sound such as uncovering
the original sound.That's interesting but there is a betrayal in the sense that
digital sound is not as good as analogical sound.We still need to have the future connected to the past.Q: Is it possible to create music that expresses inner thoughts and
expressions?But I used tape recorders.The music was intuitive, instinctive.Sometimes a strange phenomenon occurs.But that which is intuitive, instinctive, imaginary
comes also from fate because fate is nature.Q: Did you see composers such as Russolo as kindered spirits?Of course it was glorifying for
them to say we could make noise, but there always has been noise, even
classical composers would add a cannon shot in their work.Noise becomes
a musical note when altered.Real noise is very interesting.It all started distinctively and
then similarities were discovered.And then there was the splitting.Q: How do you see changes in recording technology as having an effect
on music?Has it been a positive effect?During the evolution of technique, engineers wanted to bring out finished
products, standardize manufactured products.What was interesting in electroacoustic
music, was to search, to find new ways, new possibilities.Now we can't imagine
any other kind of music for those kind of work.The music I'm referring to is the one of communication.Now it's no longer a language.I'm not convinced by current music, the
way it is done.But there are some possibilities.Bel canto and then
with Melesande and Pelleas.Music of yesterday was linear and white.And music of today has no
colors.That's why I try to add a little spatial effect and colors in my
music.Q: What do you mean by 'space' then?Speaking of space means that there is already space in reactions, in
music.The first concerts I did were in mono.Then there were tape recorders
with two tracks, stereo, which had inevitably a center.There was still
mono in stereo.Mono sound
was moving and I found it more interesting then to create movements with
stereo sounds.My next creative piece for the radio will be on 16 tracks.Q: How has editing figured into your work?It was an option because sound existed with length.With length on a
record or a soundtrack, we couldn't always cut off the attack but we could
place it at the end or reverse part of the sound.Optical tools allow us
to cut off the attack of sounds.Invention is recording a sound and playing with it.That's a harmonic question.It's a question of thickness of sound.What's important is to have many
possibilities of manipulation in order to give substance to the game, the
game of sounds.Sounds must play for we don't play with instruments, we play with soundtrack,
with editing, filtering, reverberation.These games must use all kind of
possibilities.It's about transformation, the magic of transformation of
sounds is important.Many sounds, and also many ideas.Before that, I did some try outs with equipment, with instrument
of sound search.When I met with Sheaffer again, we composed this piece.For years the list of people who I wanted to interview was headed by Pierre Henry.Henry chose his own path.Having left the Groupe de Recherches Musicales (G.His latest release is L'Homme a le Camera, based on the film by Dziga Vertov with the same title.For his answers he set up a little sketch, his assistant assuming the role of interviewer.This fake interview was recorded and the tape returned.The composer: Pierre Henry
After your musical training you started to investigate the nature of sounds.Why did I suddenly want to start to work with a new musical universe?This was at practically the end of my formal musical studies.Well, all of it must have been due to my fondness for noises.At the beginning I wanted very much to create something strange.Henry loved the theatrical presentation of music, admiring Wagner for example.He also became an ardent admirer of the ballet of Maurice Bejart.With Bejart's group Henry travelled the world as sound engineer.He also composed many works for ballet.He brought the tapes home and began the editing process.Perhaps that shows how Henry looks at pop music; a pagan ritual.Were you interested in the popular side of electronic music?To me that is not a big deal, because my music has never been truly electronic.It's a sound that has been standardised.But I haven't been number one in the hit parade!That is a big misunderstanding!The record was released in a category of classical music, and I was judged by the standards of classical music, not of pop or rock music.In the same list, 2nd and 3rd, were the Concerto de Aranjuez, The Four Seasons, Albinoni.So, all in all, the young people were right to buy La Messe Pour Le Temps Present and Le Voyage, La Porte Et Un Soupir.You did attract large audiences at your live concerts.Whereas, with the release of records, the reactions of the audience are quite remote.But overall, the music gets everywhere which is basically a good thing.Working by trial and error.Do you work like the classical composer, writing things down and then executing them (collect sound material, equipment, record, and edit)?One of course has to compose with a direction, a lucid idea.One has to have in mind a certain construction, a form.But that form differs according to the theme, to the character of the work and of course according to the material.And another work that requires a voice or chanting ...It has become clear, through the years, that you do not see things that way.Although you use sounds 'clean' (with a very clear relationship and association to its source), you use it in such a manner (by encapsulating it in a structure, or combining it with other sounds) that it becomes disassociated from its source, or perhaps becomes an icon, a metaphor.Sometimes this leads towards a solemn, and theatrical atmosphere.There are sometimes no laws, basically.They do not have to come from a library, a museum.I'm going into a period of pure ideas.It all reminds me very much of my work of the 50s.The words together become phrases.These phrases are combined by me.This is hardly ever present in the work (that I know) of the last 20 years.This unruly, stubborn attitude later on seems less emphatically present.What do think of that yourself?Death is a great subject for a work.Fifty years later there would be less other music, but more electronic music.What do you think of the developments?One should not confuse a cinema with the film that is projected.When I listen to contemporary electronic and electroacoustic music I see that to many composers one aspect is very important: the use of technology and the meaning it has to the composer.So I have always struggled to have the sounds retain their transparency.Now I have conquered these problems, thanks to digital techniques.It is possible to make a perfect copy, but I am worried about the machines doing the work that I should be doing.This is the case with many of the logical catalogues that are available to which one can subscribe.That's same thing like in painting.When working with a filter, and this filter turns a sound into something entirely new and unexpected, that interests me more because I am less connected to the style of the machine and its function than to the source of the sound.The source of a sound interests me because that's the adventure of mind's world.And these latter sounds to me are The Sound.You make quite dramatic statements.It is a passion for the dramaturgy and also for the psychological problems of this age, the suspense and the curiosity as to where society will go.Music to me is also finding a solution.It's an emotion, but ...They do not necessarily have to be emotional.Well, I wanted an audience that was adapted to a certain condition.Nowadays many people hear music at home.Electronic music has certainly drawn back inside the cocoon of the living room.Many of your works have been designed for stage performance.How do you feel about this situation?Both situations and both versions are interesting.Practically all my important works have been released on disc but only the future will tell what will happen in the area of concerts.Schaeffer was a thinker, a theoretician, and not a musician.History
Pierre Henry was born in Paris in 1927.He never went to school; his teachers came to his house.Henry is an ardent film lover and visits the cinema two or three times a week.Fernand Leger is a great inspiration because of the direct link between sound and vision.He then started working with the 'disque souple', the writable record.The tape recorder was not yet available in a practical model.The early electroacoustic compositions, dating from 1950, show Henry dabbling about with sounds recorded with the disque souple recorder, much in the same vein as Schaeffer.In 1964 Henry produced his Jerks Electronique with a 'song' called Psyche Rock under the pseudonym Yper Sound.Although always following his own path, Henry has never been a solitary closed man.Henry has produced music for films and advertisements.Another difference between Schaeffer (and the disciples of his theories) and Henry was that Henry did not follow the Husserlian ideas about music.To Henry sound has never been interesting as a phenomenon as such.That's why he denies the existence of noise; there is only sound.The sound that is there for music.Henry has remained more in the background.In 1990 a new work was released: Le Livre des Morts Egyptien.Henry has been invited to perform the work on several occasions around the world.Let us listen to Henry's music from a cool distance.Much to my regret because what I did know of his work I have been able to purchase at fleamarkets.But sound quality was poor of course.Philips only rereleased the Variations pour Une Porte et Un Soupir on CD a couple of years ago.CD)
This trio surveys the early works of Henry when he still worked with Pierre Schaeffer.The core of Henry's work are the piano (snares) and percussion.The later solemnity of the work of Henry is completely absent in these works.Henry had been asked to compose music for the inaugurational mass.Starting with a Kyrie, moving on with Gloria, Sanctus, Agnus Dei, and finishing with Communion.The work consists of recitation of the traditional texts in a way that is definitely Buddhist.Pierres Reflechies, composed in 1982, bears all the characteristics of the contemporary Henry: ostinatos of a certain number of instruments that are placed, superimposed over each other in thousands of combinations that differ only slightly.Here the ideograms that Henry speaks of in the interview are applied.German radio (which is to my opinion, next to the Apocalypse is the best he ever did).In this composition Proust's work is translated in sound, which of course has all to do with ideogrammes and synaesthesia.Mouvement, Rhythme, Etude
This work is dedicated to a close friend of Henry: Maurice Bejart, the famous dancer.Track 2 is a play for blowing balloons and a person saying: 'pssh' and 'psst'.Track 3 is instrumental and quite acoustic whereas track 4 is entirely electronic.And that's how it continues.Actually there is nothing much to say about the composition when one decides not to dissect the work in exegesis.The apocalypse, spooky already in the literary form, is performed in a fashion that makes the hair on your back stand up.Henry's translation of the different scenes, using no doubt the ideograms, is more than perfect and the narration that accompanies the auditive scenery brings shivers down your spine.When your French is below average I advise you to read along with the music in your own language.John's apocalypse inspired Clive Barker too, you know.Le Livre Des Morts Eqyptien
Death is an important theme in Henry's work.The ideograms that are essential in this composition are magnificently worked out.The course that the sounds take is quite dramatic and theatrical.Here again Henry's love for the filmic genre is shown.Actually this work should not be listened to without seeing the images.The titles give a clue about the scenery but that's hardly enough.It tries to abstract the concrete.Contact
Pierre Henry, Studio Son Re, 32 rue de Toul, 75012 Paris, FRANCE
Mantra, FGL, 45 rue Brancian, 75015 Paris, FRANCE
Ios Smolders, Molenstraat 84, 5014 NE Tilburg, HOLLAND
The majority of these recordings are available in the UK from Ultima Thule, 1 Conduit St.For those who would like to read more on the life of Pierre Henry, Michel Chion wrote a biography in 1980, published by Fayard in Paris, and available from Metamkine, 13 rue de la Drague, 38600 Fontaine, France.Ios Smolders, and originally appeared in issue 44 of Vital magazine, in 1995.Pierre Henry celebrated his 75th birthday with Labyrinthe, which was premiered in a GRM concert at Radio France, salle Olivier Messiaen, on March 29th 2003.For the very first time, Pierre Henry has used sound material which was not his own.The current GRM composers offered, as greetings on the occasion of his birthday, the ground material for this piece."The tracks feature beautifully manipulated electroacoustic string works, experimental tape works, abstract sound assemblage, etc.Henry masterwork of strange and bewildering genius.Opera de Hambourg, Feb, 1973.Oscillating electronics, processed choral sounds, another showcase for peak Henry exploration.New version of "Messe de Liverpool", superceding the prior CD version on Mantra (now deleted)."Liverpool" is a classic electronic mass from 1967, originally issued by Philips on LP.Pierre Henry and Michel Columbier; it was remixed in 1967 by William Orbit, working from original "electronic jerks" from the original and parts of Henry's 1991 remix of the same.This supersedes the now deleted Mantra version."This work is dedicated to a close friend of Henry: Maurice Bejart, the famous dancer.Henry has composed numerous works for ballet, which were staged by the dancers of Bejart.In the early days Henry even accompanied the dance group all over the world.Starting of with very simple beats that meet with the reversed sound of scraped metal wires.The whole things consists of 21 etudes for a ballet dancer.""The new remix 12" containing contributions from Ursula 1000, Moog Cook Book, Kojak, and Pierre Henry."There were 3 elements: a sigh (breathing out and breathing in), a 'sung' song obtained by percussions on a kind of musical saw with its multiple variations; and a series of grating and squeaking sounds made by a door, painstakingly recorded after a long study of the 'instrument, in a country attic." |
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