Tristan Murail (born 11 March 1947) is a French composer associated with the "spectral" technique of composition. Among his compositions is the large orchestral work Gondwana.
Early life and studies Murail was born in Le Havre, France. His father, Gérard Murail, is a poet and his mother, Marie-Thérèse Barrois, a journalist. One of his brothers, Lorris Murail, and his younger sister Elvire Murail, a.k.a. Moka, are also writers, and his younger sister Marie-Aude Murail is a French children's writer.
First studying political science and economics, he also began playing the Ondes Martenot. This led to contact with Jeanne Loriod and thence to her brother-in-law Olivier Messiaen, with whom he subsequently studied composition at the Paris ConservatoryKennedy, Michael (2006), The Oxford Dictionary of Music, from 1967 to 1972. He taught computer music and composition at IRCAM in Paris from 1991 to 1997. While there, he assisted in the development of Patchwork composition software. In 1973 he was a founding member of the Ensemble l'Itinéraire. From 1997 until 2010, he was a professor of composition at Columbia University in New York City.
Music Murail is associated with the "spectral" technique of composition, which involves the use of the fundamental properties of sound as a basis for harmony, as well as the use of spectral analysis, FM, RM, and AM synthesis as a method of deriving polyphony.
Major pieces by Murail include large orchestral pieces such as Gondwana, Time and Again and, more recently, Serendib and L'Esprit des dunes. Other pieces include his Désintégrations for 17 instruments and tape, Mémoire/Erosion for French horn and nine instruments Ethers for flute and ensemble, Winter Fragments for flute, clarinet, piano, violin, cello and electronics as well as Vampyr! for electric guitar.
Murail also composed a set of solo pieces for various instruments in his cycle Random Access Memory, of which the sixth, Vampyr!, is a rare classical piece for electric guitar. In addition to deriving much of the musical material from the harmonic series over a low E—typically the lowest note on the instrument—Ben Jameson, "'Rock Spectrale': The Cultural Identity of the Electri Guitar in Trista Murail's Vampyr!", Tempo, Volume 69, Issue 274, October 2015, pp. 22-32. the composer also references the timbre and performance style of guitarists in the rock tradition, citing Carlos Santana and Eric Clapton as examples in the instructions to the score.Tristan Murail, Vampyr!, Editions Lemoine, 1985
Among Murail's awards are the Prix de Rome (presented by the French Académie des beaux-arts in 1971), the Grand Prix du Disque (1990), the Grand Prix du Président de la République, Académie Charles Cros (1992) and the Wihuri Sibelius Prize (2023).
Murail's works are published by Éditions Transatlantiques and Éditions Henry Lemoine.Editions Henry Lemoine, Paris His music has been recorded on the Una Corda, Metier, Adés, and MFA-Radio France labels.
Works
Orchestral 1970, Altitude 8000, for orchestra 1972, Au-delà du mur du son, for large orchestra 1973, La dérive des continents, for viola and string orchestra 1973, Cosmos privé, for orchestra 1975, Sables, for orchestra 1979, Les courants de l'espace, for ondes Martenot and small orchestra 1980, Gondwana, for orchestra 1985, Sillages, for orchestra 1985, Time and again, for orchestra 1991, La dynamique des fluides, for orchestra 1996, Le partage des eaux, for large orchestra 2004, Terre d'ombre, for large orchestra and electronic sounds 2007, Contes cruels, for 2 electric guitars and orchestra 2013, Reflections / Reflets I - Spleen 2013, Reflections / Reflets II - High Voltage / Haute tension 2017, Reflections / Reflets III - Vents et marées / Tidal winds
Concertante 2012, Le Désenchantement du monde, piano concerto 2019, De Pays et d'Hommes Étranges, cello concerto 2021, L'Oeil du cyclone, piano concerto
Ensemble 1969, Couleur de mer, for 15 instruments 1972, L'Attente, for 7 instruments 1976, Mémoire/Erosion, for horn and ensemble 1978, Ethers, for 6 instruments 1978, Treize couleurs du soleil couchant, for ensemble 1982, Désintégrations, for 17 instruments and electronic sounds 1990, Allégories, for 6 instruments and electronic sounds 1992, Serendib, for 22 musicians 1993, La Barque mystique for ensemble 1994, L'Esprit des dunes, for ensemble 1996, Bois flotté, for piano, trombone, string trio, synthetic sounds and synthesized sounds 2000, Winter Fragments, for flute, clarinet, piano, violin, cello, MIDI keyboard and computer 2001, Le Lac, for ensemble 2006, Légendes urbaines for 22 instruments 2006, Seven Lakes Drive, from «Portulan», for flute, clarinet, horn, piano, violin and cello 2008, Liber fulguralis, for ensemble, electronics and video 2011, La Chambre des cartes, from «Portulan», for flute, clarinet, horn, piano, percussions, violin, viola and cello 2011, Lachrymae, for alto flute and string quintet 2011, Dernières nouvelles du vent d'ouest, from «Portulan», for viola, horn, piano and percussion 2012, The Bronze Age, for flute, clarinet, trombone, violin, cello and piano 2014, Un Sogno, for ensemble and electronics 2017, Near Death Experience d'après L'Ile des morts d'Arnold Böcklin, for ensemble and video
Chamber 1970, Où tremblent les contours, for 2 violas 1973, Les Nuages de Magellan, for 2 ondes Martenot, electric guitar and percussions 1974, Transsahara express, for bassoon and piano 1986, Atlantys, for 2 DX7 Yamaha synthesizers, from Random Access Memory 1988, Vues aériennes, for horn, violin, cello and piano 1990, Le fou à pattes bleues, for flute and piano 1993, La barque mystique, for five instruments 1998, Feuilles à travers les cloches, from «Portulan», for flute, violin, cello and piano 2006, Les Ruines circulaires, from «Portulan», for clarinet and violin 2008, Garrigue, from «Portulan», for bass flute, viola, cello and percussions 2015, Travel Notes, for 2 pianos and 2 percussions 2016, Sogni, ombre et fumi, for string quartet 2018, Stalag VIIIA, for violin, clarinet, cello and piano 2018, Une lettre de Vincent, for flute and cello 2019, Kinderszenen by Robert Schumann, rereading for flute, cello and piano
Solo instrument 1967, Comme un Oeil Suspendu et Poli par le Songe…, for piano 1972, Estuaire, 2 pieces for piano 1976, C'est un jardin secret, ma sœur, ma fiancée, une fontaine close, une source scellée for viola solo 1977, Tellur, for guitar 1977, Territoires de l'oubli, for piano 1984, Vampyr!, for electric guitar, from Random Access Memory 1992, Attracteurs étranges, for cello 1992, Cloches d’adieu, et un sourire... in memoriam Olivier Messiaen, for piano 1993, La Mandragore, for piano 1995, Unanswered questions, for flute 2002, Les travaux et les jours, for piano 2018, Cailloux dans l'eau, for piano 2019, Le Rossignol en amour, for piano
Vocal 1995, ...amaris et dulcibus aquis..., for chorus and electronic sounds 2010, Les sept Paroles, for orchestra, chorus and electronics 2016, La Vallée close, sur des sonnets de Pétrarque
References
Specialty studies Humbertclaude Éric (1999), La Transcription dans Boulez et Murail: de l’oreille à l’éveil, Harmattan,
External links Tristan Murail official site Editions Henry Lemoine, Paris Excerpt from Tristan Murail lecture from Ostrava Days 2003, August 18, 2003 Tristan Murail at CompositionToday.com