Maurice Ohana (12 June 1913 – 13 November 1992) was a French composer. Ohana's output includes choral works,

string quartet The term string quartet refers to either a type of musical composition or a group of four people who play them. Many composers from the mid-18th century onwards wrote string quartets. The associated musical ensemble consists of two Violin, violini ...

s, suites for ten-string guitar, a ''Tiento'' for six-string guitar, and operas.

Life and career

Ohana was born in

Casablanca Casablanca (, ) is the largest city in Morocco and the country's economic and business centre. Located on the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic coast of the Chaouia (Morocco), Chaouia plain in the central-western part of Morocco, the city has a populatio ...

, Morocco (during the French protectorate). His father, an Andalusian of

Sephardic Jewish Sephardic Jews, also known as Sephardi Jews or Sephardim, and rarely as Iberian Peninsular Jews, are a Jewish diaspora population associated with the historic Jewish communities of the Iberian Peninsula (Spain and Portugal) and their descendant ...

descent, had been born in the

British Overseas Territory The British Overseas Territories (BOTs) or alternatively referred to as the United Kingdom Overseas Territories (UKOTs) are the fourteen dependent territory, territories with a constitutional and historical link with the United Kingdom that, ...

Gibraltar Gibraltar ( , ) is a British Overseas Territories, British Overseas Territory and British overseas cities, city located at the southern tip of the Iberian Peninsula, on the Bay of Gibraltar, near the exit of the Mediterranean Sea into the A ...

, while his mother had Andalusian- Castilian origins. Ohana inherited British citizenship from his father. . He originally studied

architecture Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and construction, constructi ...

, but abandoned this in favour of a musical career, initially as a

pianist A pianist ( , ) is a musician who plays the piano. A pianist's repertoire may include music from a diverse variety of styles, such as traditional classical music, jazz piano, jazz, blues piano, blues, and popular music, including rock music, ...

. He studied under

Alfredo Casella Alfredo Casella (25 July 18835 March 1947) was an Italian composer, pianist and conductor. Life and career Casella was born in Turin, the son of Maria (née Bordino) and Carlo Casella. His family included many musicians: his grandfather, a f ...

in Rome, returning to France in 1946. Around this time he founded the "Groupe Zodiaque", which fought against prevailing musical dogma. His mature musical style shows the influence of Mediterranean

folk music Folk music is a music genre that includes #Traditional folk music, traditional folk music and the Contemporary folk music, contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be ca ...

, particularly the

Andalusia Andalusia ( , ; , ) is the southernmost autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community in Peninsular Spain, located in the south of the Iberian Peninsula, in southwestern Europe. It is the most populous and the second-largest autonomou ...

n ''

cante jondo ''Cante jondo'' () is a vocal style in flamenco, an unspoiled form of Andalusian folk music. The name means "deep song" in Spanish, with ''hondo'' ("deep") spelled with J () as a form of eye dialect, because traditional Andalusian pronunciation ...

''. In 1976 he took French citizenship. Ohana's output includes the choral works ''Office des Oracles'' and ''Avoaha'' (1992), three string quartets (1963, 1980, 1989), and two suites for ten-string guitar: ''Si le jour paraît...'' (1963) and ''Cadran lunaire'' (1981–82), as well as a ''Tiento'' for six-string guitar (1957). He also wrote operas entitled ''Syllabaire pour Phèdre'' and ''La Célestine'' (based on ''

La Celestina ''The Tragicomedy of Calisto and Melibea'' (), known in Spain as ''La Celestina'', is a work entirely in dialogue published in 1499. Sometimes called in English ''The Spanish Bawd'', it is attributed to Fernando de Rojas, a descendant of conv ...

'' (1499). He is also known for his extensive use of

microtonality Microtonality is the use in music of microtones — intervals smaller than a semitone, also called "microintervals". It may also be extended to include any music using intervals not found in the customary Western tuning of twelve equal interv ...

; for example, third- and quarter-tones in pieces like ''Le Tombeau de Debussy'' and ''Si le jour paraît...''. He was influenced by the use of microintervals in the ''cante jondo''. Ohana rarely composed for large symphony orchestra: ''Synaxis'' (1966), ''Livre des Prodiges'' (1979) and ''T'Harân-Ngô'' (1974). He composed two

cello concerto A cello concerto (sometimes called a violoncello concerto) is a concerto for solo cello with orchestra or, very occasionally, smaller groups of instruments. These pieces have been written since the Baroque era if not earlier. However, unlike instru ...

s, one

piano concerto A piano concerto, a type of concerto, is a solo composition in the classical music genre which is composed for piano accompanied by an orchestra or other large ensemble. Piano concertos are typically virtuosic showpieces which require an advance ...

and a guitar concerto (1958; dedicated to

Narciso Yepes Narciso Yepes (14 November 19273 May 1997) was a Spanish classical guitar, guitarist. He is considered one of the finest virtuoso classical guitarists of the twentieth century. Biography Yepes was born into a family of humble origin in Lorca, ...

).Liner notes to the Narciso Yepes recording. Ohana died in Paris, aged 79.

References

Sources *

External links

Website
of ''Les Amis de Maurice Ohana'' (in French)
Profile
Éditions Billaudot * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ohana, Maurice 1913 births 1992 deaths 20th-century French classical composers French opera composers French male opera composers Jewish classical composers Microtonal musicians Moroccan composers Moroccan emigrants to France 20th-century Moroccan Jews Musicians from Casablanca People of Andalusian descent 20th-century French male musicians Erato Records artists

Life and career

References

Further reading

External links