Von: Kevin Austin via cec conference
Datum: Wed, 1 May 2019
Betreff: [cec-c] In memory, Françoise Barrière [ 1944 – 2019 ]
In memory of Françoise Barrière, 1944-2019
While perhaps not well known among American practitioners of electroacoustic music, Françoise Barrière played a significant role in disseminating electroacoustic music and supporting numerous electroacoustic composers.
Françoise Barrière was born in Paris, studied at the Versailles Conservatory and at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique in Paris.
After a brief period at GRM and further studies in ethnomusicology, she moved to Bourges in 1970 and, along with Christian Clozier, established the Groupe de Musique Expérimentale de Bourges (GMEB, IMEB from 1994), an institute for electroacoustic music. IMEB included facilities that housed electroacoustic music production studios and the organization also actively commissioned composers to create new electroacoustic compositions, recorded electroacoustic compositions, presented an annual festival of electroacoustic music (Synthése) until 2011, published proceedings from an international academy for electroacoustic music, and hosted the annual international competition for electroacoustic music.
In many ways, GMEB/IMEB played a role for electroacoustic composers that is similar to the role the summer courses in Darmstadt have played for contemporary music. The Synthése festival was expansive, generally lasting at least a week with many concerts/installations each day, and included the presentation of works from around the world as well as the presentation of prize-winning works from the competition.
Many IMEB concerts were presented on their loudspeaker orchestras (Gmebaphone, then Cybernéphone that included 80+ loudspeakers) and also developed active educational outreach programs that brought electronic music into the public schools through their Gmebogosse and Cybersongosse hardware.
Barrière also was a founder of the International Confederation for Electroacoustic Music (ICEM), an organization dedicated to fostering cooperation and the exchange of electroacoustic music amongst national organizations and confederations of electroacoustic music.
To provide a greater context, the activities of GMEB/IMEB include the following:
– commissioned 765 electroacoustic compositions from 274 composers from 43 countries
– created a digital archive containing 14,206 electroacoustic works by 4,836 composers from 82 countries
– has presented 524 concerts in 32 countries around the world
– 39 Synthèse festivals in Bourges included 1,185 concerts with performances of the works of 2,287 composers from 62 countries as well as exhibitions, installations, and conference presentations
– Bourges Prize has recognized 519 composers from 47 countries in this international competition
– released 83 CD recordings, 10 CD-ROMs, and 5 educational CDs with their Electronic Chrysopée and Mnemosyne labels
– published 12 collections of scholarly articles as a part of their academy
Françoise Barrière contributed to the world of electroacoustic music through her own extensive compositional work that has been presented around the world. Her immense contributions have profoundly shaped the world of electroacoustic music and for those of us who had the opportunity to get to know her, we will miss her deeply.
Jon Nelson
UNT College of Music
Jon.nelson@unt.edu
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