Tristan Murail is a Compositeur French born with the Havre the March 11th 1947. It is, with Gerard Grisey, one of the principal founders and theorists of the spectral music.

Biography

Tristan Murail starts musical studies in 1967 with the Conservatoire higher national of Paris, in the class of Olivier Messiaen. It obtains a first price of composition in 1971. Between 1971 and 1973, he is boarder with the Académie from France to Rome (Villa Médicis). It will make a crucial meeting there: Giacinto Scelsi and its music. Of return to Paris, it founds in 1973 the Ensemble the Route with Michael Lévinas, Hugues Dufourt, Gerard Grisey, and Roger Tessier, which brings together interpreters and type-setters to diffuse and develop novel modes of plays by using in particular the instruments of Electronic music, then the musical Informatique.

It published many articles, in particular in the musicologic review Entre-temps , contributing to pose the bases theoretical and analytical of the spectral music ( the Revolution of the complex sounds , Specters and imps , Questions of target ). It expresses there all that the discoveries of the musical Acoustics and the musical Informatique have richness to bring to the type-setters.

Discovered of a new sound world comprising electronics, its music is initially made up on a continuity: that of sound material. Then, the idea of " processus" who corresponds to a progressive modification of a sound state to obtain a second from it, will impregnate his works. Processes which can be reduced to a sound, a gesture or which can manage other processes. The processes also make it possible to reconcile the opposites, to absorb, integrate.

Its music tends now towards more mobility and of strength.

After having taught musical data processing with IRCAM, he teaches with the Université Columbia with New York since 1997.

Tristan Murail currently works on a cycle of Chamber music entitled Portulan , according to a poetic collection of his/her father Gerard Murail for varied manpower.

The writers Lorris Murail, Marie-Aude Murail and Elvire Murail are his/her brother and sisters.

Its works partly were published with the Transatlantic Music publishings.

Works, classified chronologically

• 1969, Color of Sea .

• 1970, Altitude 8000 , for orchestra,
• 1970, Where Contours Tremble, for 2 violas,
• 1971, wide Mirrors , for waves Martenot and piano,
• 1971, Ligne of no return , for seven instrumentalists,
• 1971, Mach 2,5 , for two waves Martenot,
• 1972, Beyond the Wall of the sound , for full orchestra,
• 1972, Estuaire , 2 parts for piano,
• 1972 (rev. 1992), waiting , for seven instrumentalists,
• 1973, private Cosmos , for orchestra,
• 1973, the Continental drift , for viola
, solo and string orchestra
• 1973, the Clouds of Magellan ,
• 1974, Tiger of glass , for waves Martenot and piano,
• 1974, Transsahara express train , for bassoon and piano,
• 1974-1975, Sands ,
• 1976, It is a secret garden, my sister, my promised in marriage, a closed fountain, a sealed source for viola solo,
• 1976, Mémoire/Erosion , for horn and nine instrumentalists,
• 1977, Tellur , for guitar,
• 1977, Territories of the lapse of memory , for piano,
• 1978, Ethers , for flute and together instrumental,
• 1978, Thirteen colors of the setting sun ,
• 1979, Currents of space , for waves Martenot and small orchestra,
• 1980, Gondwana , for orchestra,
• 1982, the Conquest of the Antarctic , for waves Martenot,
• 1982, Disintegrations , for 17 electronic instruments and sounds,
• 1984, Vampyr! , for electric guitar, extracted from Random Access Memory ,
• 1985, Wakes , for orchestra,
• 1985, Time and again , for orchestra,
• 1986, Atlantys , for 2 synthetizers DX7 Yamaha, extract of Random Access Memory ,
• 1986, Vision of the Prohibited City , for 2 synthetizers DX7 Yamaha, extract of Random Access Memory ,
• 1984-1987, Random Accesses Memory ,
• 1988, Seen air , for horn, violin, violoncello, piano,
• 1989, Allegories , for 6 electronic instruments and sounds,
• 1986-1988, Seven Words of Christ in Cross , for orchestra and chorus,
• 1990, the Insane one with blue legs , for flute (ground and C) and piano,
• 1990-1991, the Dynamics of the fluids , for orchestra,
• 1992, Attractile strange , for violoncello,
• 1992, Bells of good-bye, and a smile… in memoriam Olivier Messiaen , for piano,
• 1992, Serendib , for whole of 22 musicians,
• 1993, the mystical Boat , for five instruments (ED. Henry Lemoine, Paris),
• 1993, the Mandrake , for piano
• 1993-1994, the Spirit of the dunes , for unit,
• 1995, … amaris and dulcibus aquis… , for mixed chorus and its electronic,
• 1995, Unanswered questions, for flute,
• 1996, floated Wood , for piano, trombone, trio with cords, sounds of synthesis and electronic device (ED. Henry Lemoine, Paris),
• 1996, the division of water , for full orchestra,
• 1998, Like a suspended eye and polished by the dream… , for piano,
• 1998, Sheets through the bells , extracted from “ Portulan ”, for flute, violin, violoncello and piano,
• 2000, Winter fragments (2000), for flute, clarinet, piano, violin, violoncello and electronic device (ED. Henry Lemoine, Paris),
• 2001, the lake , for orchestra,
• 2002, Work and the Days for piano (ED. Henry Lemoine, Paris),
• 2003-2004, Umber , for full orchestra and electronic sounds,
• 2005, to soften the course of time , for 18 instruments and electronics,
• 2006, the Ruins circulaires', extracted from “ Portulan ”, for clarinet and violin,
• 2006, Seven Lakes Drive , extracted from “ Portulan ”, for flute, clarinet, horn, piano, violin and violoncello,

External bonds

• Biography and catalogs on the site of the IRCAM

• Site of the unit Itinéraire
• Site of the review Entre-temps