Henry at his home (January 2008)
Pierre Georges Albert François Henry (; 9 December 1927 – 5 July 2017) was a French
composer
A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music.
Etymology and Def ...
and pioneer of
musique concrète
Musique concrète (; ): " problem for any translator of an academic work in French is that the language is relatively abstract and theoretical compared to English; one might even say that the mode of thinking itself tends to be more schematic, wit ...
.
Biography
Henry was born in
Paris, France
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. Si ...
, and began experimenting at the age of 15 with sounds produced by various objects. He became fascinated with the integration of noise into music, now called
noise music
Noise music is a genre of music that is characterised by the expressive use of noise within a musical context. This type of music tends to challenge the distinction that is made in conventional musical practices between musical and non-musical ...
. He studied with
Nadia Boulanger
Juliette Nadia Boulanger (; 16 September 188722 October 1979) was a French music teacher and conductor. She taught many of the leading composers and musicians of the 20th century, and also performed occasionally as a pianist and organist.
From a ...
,
Olivier Messiaen
Olivier Eugène Prosper Charles Messiaen (, ; ; 10 December 1908 – 27 April 1992) was a French composer, organist, and ornithology, ornithologist who was one of the major composers of the 20th-century classical music, 20th century. His m ...
, and Félix Passerone at the
Conservatoire de Paris
The Conservatoire de Paris (), also known as the Paris Conservatory, is a college of music and dance founded in 1795. Officially known as the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris (CNSMDP), it is situated in the avenue ...
from 1938 to 1948.
Between 1949 and 1958, Henry worked at the
Club d'Essai studio at
RTF, which had been founded by
Pierre Schaeffer in 1943. During this period, he wrote the 1950 piece ''
Symphonie pour un homme seul'', in cooperation with Schaeffer. It is an important early example of
musique concrète
Musique concrète (; ): " problem for any translator of an academic work in French is that the language is relatively abstract and theoretical compared to English; one might even say that the mode of thinking itself tends to be more schematic, wit ...
. Henry also composed the first musique concrète track to appear in a commercial film: the 1952 short film ''Astrologie ou le miroir de la vie'' by
Jean Grémillon. Henry also scored numerous additional films and
ballets.
Two years after leaving the RTF, he co-founded, with Jean Baronnet, the first private
electronic music
Electronic music is a genre of music that employs electronic musical instruments, digital instruments, or circuitry-based music technology in its creation. It includes both music made using electronic and electromechanical means ( electro ...
studio in France: Studio Apsone-Cabasse.
Among Henry's works is the 1967 ballet ''Messe pour le temps présent'', a collaboration with composer
Michel Colombier and choreographer
Maurice Béjart that debuted in
Avignon
Avignon (, ; ; oc, Avinhon, label= Provençal or , ; la, Avenio) is the prefecture of the Vaucluse department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region of Southeastern France. Located on the left bank of the river Rhône, the commune had ...
. In 1970 Henry collaborated with British
rock band
Spooky Tooth
Spooky Tooth were an English rock band originally formed in Carlisle in 1967. Principally active between 1967 and 1974, the band re-formed several times in later years.
History
Prior to Spooky Tooth, four of the band's five founding members ...
on the album ''
Ceremony
A ceremony (, ) is a unified ritualistic event with a purpose, usually consisting of a number of artistic components, performed on a special occasion.
The word may be of Etruscan origin, via the Latin '' caerimonia''.
Church and civil (secula ...
''.
In 1997, a ''Métamorphose: Messe pour le temps présent'' compilation recording was released that brought together remixes of various compositions of Henry's by electronic artists
Fatboy Slim
Norman Quentin Cook (born Quentin Leo Cook, 31 July 1963), also known by his stage name Fatboy Slim, is an English musician, DJ, and record producer who helped to popularise the big beat genre in the 1990s. In the 1980s, Cook was the bassist ...
,
Coldcut,
Saint Germain,
The Mighty Bop and
Dimitri From Paris. Composer
Christopher Tyng
Christopher Tyng (born August 5, 1968) is an American composer for film and television. He composed the music for several television series, including ''Futurama'', ''The O.C.'', '' The Job'', ''Knight Rider'', '' Suits'', ''High Incident'', ...
was heavily inspired by Henry's ''Psyché Rock'' when writing the theme to the popular animated cartoon show ''
Futurama
''Futurama'' is an American animated science fiction sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series follows the adventures of the professional slacker Philip J. Fry, who is cryogenically preserved for 1000 years ...
''. The theme is so reminiscent of ''Psyché Rock'' that it is considered a variation of the original which is a piece by Henry and
Michel Colombier released in 1967. The track consists of bells, flutes, brass and rock ensemble (guitar, bass, drums) and electronic music. It is strongly inspired by
The Troggs song "
Wild Thing" (written by
Chip Taylor) and "
Louie Louie", written by
Richard Berry and first popularized by
The Kingsmen
The Kingsmen are a 1960s rock band from Portland, Oregon, United States. They are best known for their 1963 recording of R&B singer Richard Berry's " Louie Louie", which held the No. 2 spot on the '' Billboard'' charts for six weeks an ...
.
Henry died on Wednesday 5 July 2017 at Saint Joseph's Hospital in Paris, at the age of 89.
Discography
* 1950 ''
Symphonie pour un homme seul'' (in collaboration with
Pierre Schaeffer)
* 1951 ''Le microphone bien temperé''
::''Musique sans titre''
::''Concerto des ambiguities'' mit Klavier
* 1952 First film music with ''musique concrète'' for
Jean Grémillons film ''Astrologie''
* 1953 ''Orphée 53'', experimental opera for
Donaueschingen Festival, first stage play with ''musique concrète'' (together with Pierre Schaeffer)
* 1955 ''Arcane'' (ballet)
* 1956 ''Haut voltage'' (ballet)
* 1958 ''Coexistence''
* 1959 ''Investigations''
* 1961 ''La Noire à Soixante''
* 1963 ''La Reine Verte'' (ballet)
* 1967 ''Le Voyage'' (ballet)
* 1967 ''Variations pour une porte et un soupir (Variations For a Door And a Sigh)''
* 1967 ''Messe pour le temps présent'' (in cooperation with
Michel Colombier)
* 1968 ''L’Apocalypse de Jean'' (Die Apokalypse des Johannes) with spoken text
* 1968 ''Le Voyage (D'Après Le Livre Des Morts Tibétain)''
* 1969 ''
Ceremony
A ceremony (, ) is a unified ritualistic event with a purpose, usually consisting of a number of artistic components, performed on a special occasion.
The word may be of Etruscan origin, via the Latin '' caerimonia''.
Church and civil (secula ...
'' (with
Spooky Tooth
Spooky Tooth were an English rock band originally formed in Carlisle in 1967. Principally active between 1967 and 1974, the band re-formed several times in later years.
History
Prior to Spooky Tooth, four of the band's five founding members ...
)
* 1971 ''
Nijinsky, clown de dieu'' (ballet)
* 1973 ''Machine Danse''
* 1973 ''Kyldex I'' (cybernetic ballet)
* 1975 ''Futuriste'', in memory of the Italian Futurists
Luigi Russolo
* 1978 ''Dieu''
* 1979 ''La Dixième Symphonie'', tribute to
Ludwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven (baptised 17 December 177026 March 1827) was a German composer and pianist. Beethoven remains one of the most admired composers in the history of Western music; his works rank amongst the most performed of the classic ...
* 1986 ''La Dixième Symphonie De Beethoven''
* 1990 ''Le livre des morts égyptien'' (
Book of the Dead
The ''Book of the Dead'' ( egy, 𓂋𓏤𓈒𓈒𓈒𓏌𓏤𓉐𓂋𓏏𓂻𓅓𓉔𓂋𓅱𓇳𓏤, ''rw n(y)w prt m hrw(w)'') is an ancient Egyptian funerary text generally written on papyrus and used from the beginning of the New Kingdom ( ...
)
* 1997 ''Interieur/Exterrieur''
* 2015 ''Choix d'oeuvres de 1950–1985'' (Selections of works 1950–1985 on VOD Records Cat VOD133 Edition of 400 on 10xVinyl records)
* 2021 ''Galaxie Pierre Henry''
References
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Footnotes
External links
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Discographyof vinyl records.
Pierre Henry at Virtual International Philharmonic* http://media.hyperreal.org/zines/est/intervs/henry.html
{{DEFAULTSORT:Henry, Pierre
1927 births
2017 deaths
Musicians from Paris
French electronic musicians
French experimental musicians
Electroacoustic music composers
French sound artists
French classical composers
French male classical composers
Musique concrète
Officers of the Ordre national du Mérite
20th-century French composers
20th-century classical composers
20th-century French male musicians
21st-century French composers
21st-century classical composers
21st-century French male musicians