Pierre Henry

Henry at his home (January 2008)

Pierre Georges Albert François Henry (; 9 December 1927 – 5 July 2017) was a French composer known for his significant contributions to musique concrète.

Biography

Henry was born in Paris, France, 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. He studied with Nadia Boulanger, Olivier Messiaen, and Félix Passerone at the Conservatoire de Paris 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 1942. 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. 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 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. In 1970, Henry collaborated with British rock band Spooky Tooth on the album ''Ceremony''.

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, Coldcut, Saint Germain, The Mighty Bop and Dimitri From Paris. Composer Christopher Tyng was heavily inspired by Henry's ''Psyché Rock'' when writing the theme to the popular animated cartoon show ''Futurama''. The theme is so reminiscent of ''Psyché Rock'' that it is considered a variation of the original piece that Henry and Michel Colombier released in 1967. The sound effects off Henry and Colombier's ''Jericho Jerk'' from the same album also became a popular sample in hip hop and modern electronic music beginning with D'Angelo's '' Devil's Pie'' produced by DJ Premier, later being used by others such as A Tribe Called Quest (''Solid Wall Of Sound''), James Blake ('' If the Car Besides You Moves Ahead''), Kaytranada (''DO IT''), and Dreamville's producers ('' Sacrifices''), among numerous others. Additionally, one of his songs from his joint album with Spooky Tooth, ''Jubilation'', was sampled by superduo ¥$ (Kanye West & Ty Dolla $ign) on their song ''Problematic''.

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 opera 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'' (with Spooky Tooth)
* 1970 ''Fragments pour Artaud''
* 1971 '' Nijinsky, clown de dieu'' (ballet)
* 1973 ''Machine Danse''
* 1973 ''Prismes''
* 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
* 1984 ''La Ville. Die Stadt (Metropolis Paris)''
* 1986 ''La Dixième Symphonie De Beethoven''
* 1990 ''Le livre des morts égyptien'' ( Book of the Dead)
* 1997 ''Intérieur/Extérieur''
* 2015 ''Choix d'œuvres 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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Discography
of vinyl records.
Pierre Henry at Virtual International Philharmonic
* http://media.hyperreal.org/zines/est/intervs/henry.html

{{DEFAULTSORT:Henry, Pierre
1927 births
2017 deaths
Composers from Paris
French electronic musicians
French experimental musicians
Electroacoustic music composers
French sound artists
French male classical composers
Musique concrète
Officers of the Ordre national du Mérite
20th-century French classical composers
20th-century French male musicians
21st-century French classical composers
21st-century French male musicians