Gilles Tremblay (composer)

Gilles Tremblay
Born	(1932-09-06)September 6, 1932 Arvida, Quebec
Died	July 27, 2017(2017-07-27) (aged 84) Montreal, Quebec
Occupations	Composer, teacher

Gilles Tremblay, OQ CM (September 6, 1932 – July 27, 2017) was a Canadian composer and teacher.

Early life and education

Born in Arvida, Quebec, Tremblay studied at the conservatories of Québec in Montréal and Paris (1954–61), where his teachers included Olivier Messiaen (analysis), Andrée Vaurabourg-Honegger (counterpoint), Yvonne Loriod (piano), and Maurice Martenot (inventor of the ondes Martenot). He also attended Karlheinz Stockhausen's summer courses at Darmstadt, where he became interested in electro-acoustic techniques.

Career

Tremblay returned to Quebec in 1961. He taught musical analysis at the Centre d'arts Orford and at the Conservatoire de musique du Québec in Quebec City. Beginning in 1962, and for many years, he taught composition at the Conservatoire de musique du Québec à Montréal. Among his pupils are Serge Arcuri, Raynald Arseneault, Yves Daoust, François Dompierre, Marc Hyland, Ramon Lazkano, Robin Minard, Éric Morin, Silvio Palmieri, Micheline Coulombe Saint-Marcoux, Isabelle Panneton, André Villeneuve, Claude Vivier, and Wolf Edwards.

Early in his career he performed as a specialist on the ondes Martenot.

A central figure in Quebec's contemporary classical music scene, Tremblay was active in many capacities including as president and artistic director of the Société de musique contemporaine du Québec.

In 1983, a six-record set of Tremblay's music was included in the Anthology of Canadian Music series. The Tremblay portrait in the Canadian Composers Portraits series was released in 2003.

He was the recipient of many honours including the Denise-Pelletier award and Officer of the National Order of Quebec (1991). In 2012, he was named to the Order of Canada.

Tremblay died July 27, 2017, in the Montreal borough of Côte-des-Neiges–Notre-Dame-de-Grâce.

Compositions (selective list)

• Mobile, for violin and piano (1962)
• Champs I, for piano and 2 percussionists (1965)
• Cantique de durées, for seven groups of instruments (1960)
• Sonorisation du Pavillon du Québec, 24-channel electronic music (1967)
• Souffles (Champs II), for 2 flutes, oboe, clarinet, horn, 2 trumpets, 2 trombones, piano, 2 percussionists, and contrabass (1968)
• Vers (Champs III), for 2 flutes, clarinet, trumpet, horn, 3 percussionists, 3 violins, and contrabass (1969)
• Jeux de solstices, for orchestra (1974)
• Oralléluiants, for soprano, bass clarinet, horn, 2 percussionists, and 3 contrabasses (1975)
• Fleuves, for piano, percussion, and orchestra (1976)
• Vers le soleil, for orchestra (1978)
• Le Signe du lion, for horn and tam-tam (1981)
• Triojubilus "À Raphaël", for flute, harp, and cowbells (1985)
• Les Vêpres de la Vierge, for soprano and orchestra (1986)
• Musique du feu, for piano and orchestra (1991)
• L'arbre de Borobudur, for horn, 2 harps, double bass, ondes Martenot, 2 percussionists, and gamelan ensemble (1994)
• L'espace du coeur (Miron-Machaut), for mixed voices and percussion (1997)
• Les pierres crieront, for cello and large orchestra (1998)
• A quelle heure commence le temps?, for baritone, percussion, piano, and orchestra (1999)
• L'appel de Kondiaronk: symphonie portuaire, environmental work for battle sirens and 2 locomotives (2000)
• String Quartet 'Croissant' (2001)
• En partage (Concerto), for viola and orchestra (2002)
• L'eau qui danse, la pomme qui chante et l'oiseau qui dit la vérité, Opéra féerie based on "The Dancing Water, the Singing Apple, and the Speaking Bird" (2009)

Writings

• 1968. "Note pour Cantique de durées." Revue d'esthetique 21, nos. 2–4 ("Musiques nouvelles"): 51–58.
• 1994. "Gilles Tremblay : réflexions". Circuit, musiques contemporaines. 5 (1).

References

Sources

• Beck, Gordon. 2017. "Composer Gilles Tremblay Has Died at 85". Montreal Gazette (29 July; accessed 8 July 2019).
• Everett-Green, Robert. 2017-08-02. Gilles Tremblay was a Mainstay of Montreal's Contemporary Music Scene. Globe and Mail.
• Huss, Christophe. 2017. "Gilles Tremblay, la mort du patriarche". Le Devoir (31 July; accessed 8 July 2019).
• Lefebvre, Marie-Thérèse. 2018. "Gilles Tremblay". Société de musique contemporaine du Québec (18 January; accessed 8 July 2019).
• Mather, Bruce. 2001. "Gilles Tremblay". The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, second edition, edited by Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell. London: Macmillan Publishers.
• Orton, Richard, and Hugh Davies. 2001. "Ondes martenot". The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, second edition, edited by Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell. London: Macmillan Publishers.
• Stephen, J. Drew. "Gilles Tremblay [review]." CAML Review, v. 31, no. 2, 2003, pp. 46-48. https://doi.org/10.25071/1708-6701.2303

Further reading

• Auzolle, Cécile (2010). "De la résurgence du merveilleux : l'exemple de L'Eau qui danse, la Pomme qui chante et l'Oiseau qui dit la vérité, un opéra de Gilles Tremblay et Pierre Morency". Circuit (in French). 20 (3): 9–42. doi:10.7202/044859ar.
• Bradley, Ian L. (1982). "Gilles Tremblay". Twentieth Century Canadian Composers. Vol. 2. GLC Publishers. pp. 197–214.
• Lefebvre, Marie-Thérèse. "Le compositeur Gilles Tremblay : un artiste croyant et engagé". Les Cahiers des dix (in French) (64): 83–120.
• Mather, Bruce (1974). "Gilles Tremblay". In Vinton, John (ed.). Dictionary of Contemporary Music. Dutton. pp. 766–67.
• Mather, Bruce (1975). "Gilles Tremblay". In MacMillan, Keith; Beckwith, John (eds.). Contemporary Canadian Composers. Oxford University Press. pp. 75–77.
• Mather, Bruce (1995). "Gilles Tremblay". The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. Vol. 19. Macmillan. p. 130.
• Peyser, Joan (1976). Boulez: Composer, Conductor, Enigma. New York: Schirmer Books. ISBN 0-02-871700-7.
• Villeneuve, André (2001). "Souffles (Champs II), the Mobile, and the Musical Language of Gilles Tremblay". Ex tempore. 10 (2): 58–147.
• "Gilles Tremblay, ou le plain-chant contemporain". Circuit, musiques contemporaines (in French). 20 (3). 2010.
• "Musique de Gilles Tremblay / Opéra et pédagogie". Les Cahiers de la Société québécoise de recherche en musique (in French). 12 (1–2): 7–148. 2011.

External links

• "Gilles Tremblay" by Robert Richard (2006); "Gilles Tremblay" by Alexis Luko, Rachelle Taylor, Hélène Plouffe (2008) The Canadian Encyclopedia
• "Gilles Tremblay" The Living Composers Project
• Gilles Tremblay Canadian Music Centre
• Gilles Tremblay discography at Discogs