Denis Levaillant
Biography

Since 1973, this French composer and pianist, born in Paris in 1952, has developed a catalogue of highly varied works covering a vast range of expression (opera, ballet, symphony orchestra, chamber ensembles, choruses, soloists, electro-acoustic, radio pieces…). He began studying the piano at the age of six, recorded Ravel’s Valses nobles et sentimentales when he was 12 and played Mozart concerti with his professor, Magdeleine Mangin, who also initiated him in the basics of writing (harmony, counterpoint…).

In the early 1970s, he abandoned the classic course, having decided to acquire the broadest possible professional experience. Fascinated by dance, jazz, improvisation and the circus, from this ‘in vivo’ training period he would draw the material for his book L’improvisation musicale (1980), which has become a reference on the subject. In 1973, he also wrote his first radio work, Circus Virus, for the Atelier de Création de France Culture, and this was the beginning of a long creative collaboration with the radio, which would lead to his winning the RAI Prize for Speakers at the Italia Prize in 1988. During the same period, he earned a Master’s in philosophy (1974).

At the beginning of the 1980s, he embarked upon the adventure of live entertainment and, with his company, Bleu 17, created musical spectacles combining singing, theatre, magic, instruments, lighting and sound in new forms. Since Deux Pièces à Louer, premiered in 1983, he has written some 15 singular shows marked by a powerful imaginative universe, up to the most recent, Un petit rien-du-tout tout neuf, first performed at the Théâtre du Rond-Point (Paris) in April 2006. Some of these have created a considerable stir, in particular Les Passagers du delta, first performed in trio with the American jazz musicians Barre Phillips and Barry Altshul, and his opera O.P.A. Mia (My Tender Bid), premiered in 1990 at the Avignon Festival, directed by André Engel with costumes and sets by Enki Bilal.

He has enlarged his palette of expression by participating in the beginnings of digital sound treatment (at the INA-GRM, the Music Research Group of the National Audiovisual Institute), applying these new techniques to instrumental writing: from Piano Transit (1983) up to the recent ElektroSpacePiano (2003), by way of Drama Symphony (1995), this research has remained constant in his work. With Les Pierres noires, for mixed chorus (1984), he began original research on harmony and vocal polyphony, which he has continued to go into in greater depth.

These productive years also witnessed numerous collaborations with choreographers (D. Bagouet, D. Petit, C. Marcadé, B. Lefèvre...) and stage directors (in particular, Alain Françon).

At the onset of the 1990s, he devoted most of his creative efforts to symphonic and instrumental writing, this resulting in important works such as his Piano Concerto ‘Echo de Narcisse’ (1995), String Quartet No.2 ‘Le Clair, l’Obscur’ (1997), Concerto for Orchestra ‘Paysages de Conte’ (1998) and the Tombeau de Gesualdo, for counter-tenor and 12 mixed voices (1994). His collaboration with record producer Frédéric Leibovitz allowed him to see most of his catalogue recorded and regularly synchronized in television and films. In 1995, the Ensemble Intercontemporain and the Louvre commissioned him to write music for Fritz Lang’s last silent film, Frau im Mond. In 1999, he created a new full-length spectacle, Eloge de la Radio, first performed at Radio France’s ‘Présences’ Festival in 2000.

In 2002, the Paris Opera commissioned a symphonic ballet, La Petite danseuse, which met with great success. In 2005, he composed l’Opéra de la lune, for orchestra and narrator, based on a story by Jacques Prévert.

 

1983            Villa Médicis (‘beyond the walls’: New York City)

1988            Italia Prize

1998            Permanent member of SACEM
Interview with Denise Luccioni

The concept of "avant-garde" is still widely used in music today. Are you "avant-garde" ? I'm an author !.

That is no answer. Yes it is, I believe creation consists both in breaking a tradition and continuing it, especially in music.

You say "author", not "composer" ? "Composer" seems a bit too restrictive, music is not just chemistry.

Do you prefer alchemy ? Yes, definitely, for its quest, its poetry. Music is more than just an architecture of sounds, it is above all a language. THE language ?

Do you believe in the "neo" movement ? Absolutely not ! But it does express the new generation's deep longing for union rather than rupture. Music should return to a certain expression and, at the same time, to a larger audience.

Does the past weigh on you ?. It nourishes me and impedes me. Music is probably the art form where the classics most crush the moderns. In a living society, it should be up to the moderns to choose which classics will endure and how their work will, be heard.

As a pianist, though, you have not followed a classical itinerary. Why not ? When I perform I choose my pieces myself and I identify with them. So I am still acting like an author - of programs, of shows. It is the only way I can live : I make the pieces I play resonate with my own music.

Do you improvise in the same way ? Absolutely. The more I grow, the more I see the relationships. The piano calls for this openness. In fact, a large part of my energy comes from improvisation, from taking these daily liberties.

Liberty, energy... That sounds like jazz. Yes, and rythm too. I have been playing since 1969 and I've found a lot of real music in jazz and a lot of lessons.

Are you against being a specialist ? The market forces us all to be specialists, but I fight it like a demon. I consider myself more of a "G.M.', a "general musician", for whom performing and composing are vital and complementary activities.

Do you like technology ? It has invaded everything, no musician today can escape it. But often it is just mystification : a new sound does not necessarily mean new music. Computers will never be able to replace gesture.

But the role of sound is becoming increasingly important in music. Of course. I even think that sound, from recording to broadcasting, to treatment, is an integral part of composing, and that the revolution in recording has been as radical for music as formal research has been.

So radio is of value for the musician ? I would even say that radio should be made by musicians, even talk radio. When it began it was the berth of all research in sound, and it is still a very rich area for discovery, thanks to its variety, heterogeneity, theatricality...

How about film ? It is a future vehicle for music. For its dissemination, of course, but also its creation. It is a largely unexplored territory.

So the concert is an obsolete form today ? I think that any public musical event demands that an effort be made towards its performance. My first concert was a performance. Since then, I have taken part in some twenty of these adventures, either as a collaborator (theater, dance) or as the mastermind of the entire thing.

We're far from "pure music" My dream of absolute purity is a music that you read for yourself alone. This practice is inexorably being lost.

What musical form are you more interested in ? Today, opera, definitely. With opera, I can apply everything I know : vocal composition, polyphony, dramaturgy of instrumentation, electro-acoustic techniques, sound broadcasting. I have a great longing for renewal in that area.