Tôn-Thất Tiết (born 1933 in
Huê) is a
Vietnam
Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...
ese-born French music composer.
His double-character family name is
Tôn Thất Tôn Thất (''Ton That'' or ''Ton-That'', often simplified to ''Tonthat'' in English-language text) is a two-character Vietnamese compound surname, originating from the Nguyễn dynasty. This surname was originally ''Tông Thất'' (), which is der ...
, his given name Tiết (尊室節).
Biography
Born in
Huê in central Vietnam in 1933, Tiet came to Paris in 1958 to study composition 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 ...
. In 1977 he adopted French citizenship.
At the Paris Conservatoire he attended
Jean Rivier
Alexis Fernand Félix Jean Rivier (21 July 1896 – 6 November 1987) was a French composer of classical music in the neoclassical style.
The son of Henri Rivier, a co-inventor of Armenian paper, he composed over two hundred works, including mus ...
's and
André Jolivet
André Jolivet (; 8 August 1905 – 20 December 1974) was a French composer. Known for his devotion to French culture and musical thought, Jolivet drew on his interest in acoustics and atonality, as well as both ancient and modern musical influe ...
's classes for composition. He was at first drawn to the serial technique but from 1966 on he turned to another mode of inspiration. Of André Jolivet he said: "As a professor, he has never tried to influence me, nor push me toward any special kind of style. Our professor-student relationship was of a spiritual order. Yet through his suggestion and what Rivier had said, I came to realize that it was in the oriental way of thinking that I would find my style in music. I owe to Rivier the language and the shaping of my music which, as Jolivet has said, should be "a mean to express ideas and not an aim in itself.".
Tôn-Thất Tiết's music has a special language in which both oriental and occidental trends are fused, although the inspiration and thoughts are drawn basically from oriental sources. This is obvious in many of his works such as ''Kiem Ai'' (Universal Love, 1978) for choir and orchestra, ''The Game of the Five Elements'', (1982–1990), or ''Prajna paramita'' - the basic sutra of Buddhism - for 6 voices and instrumental ensemble, (1988) and ''Chu Ky'', a series of seven instrumental pieces.
ensemble intercontemporain
"... musicologue et éditeur, parle du Silence dans la musique de Tôn Thất Tiết ..."
Tôn-Thất Tiết composed the scores for three of Trần Anh Hùng's feature films: '' The Scent of Green Papaya'', '' Cyclo'', and '' The Vertical Ray of the Sun''. He has also collaborated with French choreographer Régine Chopinot
Régine Chopinot (born 1952), born at Fort-de-l'Eau (nowadays Bordj El Kiffan) in Algeria,. is a French dancer and choreographer of Contemporary Dance.
History
Since she was 5 years old, Régine Chopinot studied classical dance, and then dis ...
on two of her dance pieces: ''Parole de feu'' (1995) and ''Danse du temps'' (1999).
In 1993, he founded the ''France-Vietnam Music Association'' to promote the development of traditional music in Vietnam.
References
External links
Website 1
Ton-That Tiet - interview with Vietnamese composer, Ton-That Tiet - Interview
o
here
Elsa_Grether
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plays Metal Earth Water by Tôn-Thất Tiết on Classical Connect
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ton-That, Tiet
1933 births
Living people
People from Huế
Conservatoire de Paris alumni
French composers
French male composers
Vietnamese composers
Georges Delerue Award winners
French people of Vietnamese descent
Musicians of Vietnamese descent