Pierre Mercure
Pierre Mercure (born February 21, 1927 in Montreal , † January 22, 1966 in Avallon , France ) was a Canadian composer , television producer and trombonist .
From 1944 to 1949, Mercure studied harmony and counterpoint with Marvin Duchow and Claude Champagne at the Conservatoire de musique du Québec , conducting with Leon Barzin and trombone with Roland Gagnier and Louis Letellier . In 1949 he worked at the Théâtre des Compagnons on three works that combined dance , poetry , music and painting . With the choreographer Françoise Sullivan , the lyricist Claude Gauvreau and the painter Jean-Paul Mousseau , he performed Dualité , Femme archaïque and Lucrèce Borgia .
In 1949, Mercure went to Paris , where he first studied with Nadia Boulanger and later with Arthur Hoérée , Darius Milhaud and Jean Fournet . He also worked on joint compositions with his friends Gabriel Charpentier , Jocelyne Binet and Clermont Pépin .
He spent the summer of 1951 on a Québec government scholarship in Tanglewood , where Luigi Dallapiccola became his teacher and friend. In early 1952 he went to the CBC , where he was the producer of the TV music program until 1959, bringing out series such as L'Heure du concert , Concerts pour la jeunesse , Jazz Workshop , Music Hall and Pays et merveilles .
During his second stay in Europe in 1957 and 1958, Mercure studied with Pierre Schaeffer , under whose influence he turned to electroacoustic music in the following years. In August 1961 he organized the International Week of Today's Music , to which he had invited John Cage , Serge Garant , Mauricio Kagel , Karlheinz Stockhausen , Christian Wolff and Iannis Xenakis , among others .
On his third trip to Europe in 1962, which also took him to Paris and Darmstadt , his composition was performed at the Fluxus International Festival of New Music in Wiesbaden .
From 1949 to 1958 he was married to the actress Monique Mercure . The connection resulted in a daughter and twin sons.
On January 22, 1966, Mercure was killed in a traffic accident near Avallon in France. In the same year, the pianists Victor Bouchard and Renée Morisset were awarded the Prix Pierre Mercure for their performance of the Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra by Roger Matton at the Montreal Festival du disque .
Works
- Dualité , ballet, 1948
- Kaléidoscope for orchestra, 1948
- Pantomime for strings and percussion, 1948
- Colloque (after Paul Valéry ) for medium voice and piano, 1948
- La femme archaïque , ballet, 1949
- Lucrèce Borgia , ballet, 1949
- Emprise , ballet, 1950
- Ils ont détruit la ville , 1950
- Cantate pour une joie , 1955
- Dissidence for soprano or tenor and piano, 1955
- Divertissement for string quartet / string orchestra, 1957
- Triptyque for orchestra, 1959
- Improvisation , ballet, 1961
- Incandescence , ballet, 1961
- Structures métalliques I and II , ballet, 1961
- Jeu de hockey for tape, 1961
- Répercussions for tape, 1961
- Structures métalliques III. for tape, 1962
- Manipulations , Ballet, 1963
- Tétrachromie , ballet, 1963
- Psaume pour abri for wind quintet, string quartet, harpsichord, piano, harp, percussion and tape, 1963
- Surimpressions , ballet, 1964
- Lignes et points for orchestra, 1964
- La Forme des choses , soundtrack, 1965
- Elément 3 , soundtrack, 1965
- H2O per Severino for 4–10 instruments, 1965
swell
- Pierre Mercure ( English, French ) In: Encyclopedia of Music in Canada . published by The Canadian Encyclopedia . Retrieved August 21, 2016.
- Pierre Mercure , entry at brahms.ircam.fr (French)
- Pierre Mercure , entry at Canadian Music Center (English)
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Mercure, Pierre |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Canadian composer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | February 21, 1927 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Montreal |
| DATE OF DEATH | January 22, 1966 |
| Place of death | near Avallon , France |