Intuitive Music

Luc Ferrari, the French avant-garde composer and pioneer of magnetic tape music, died last Monday August the 22nd in Arezzo, Italy at the age of 79.

Luc Ferrari was born in Paris in 1929 and studied piano under Alfred Cortot, musical analysis under Olivier Messiaen and composition under Arthur Honegger. Luc Ferrari’s early works were focused on the free atonal composition. He moved to the United States in 1954 to meet avant-garde composer Edgard Varese, who became a key influence in his career, starting a series of works for magnetic tape. In 1958 Luc Ferrari joined the Groupe de Musique Concr�te and co-founded the Groupe des Recherche Musicales along with Pierre Schaeffer and Fran�ois-Bernard M�che.

In 1960, Luc Ferrari wrote the famous “H�t�rozygote” piece of music for magnetic tape, using ambient environmental sounds. This was the first of a long series of works where he used environmental sounds. Luc ferrari was also a pioneer in the use of granular synthesis, which was later in the 90’s used commonly in soundscapes and digital electronic works.

From 1964 to 1965 Ferrari was Professor of Composition at the Rheinische Musikschule in Cologne. In 1965 and 1966 he produced the music for a series of television documentaries called “Les Grandes R�p�titions”, where other contemporary composers collaborated such as Edgard Var�se, Olivier Messiaen, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Hermann Scherchen and Cecil Taylor. In 1967 Luc Ferrari moved to Berlin to take charge of music at the Maison de la Culture in Amiens.

Luc Ferrari was been awarded on numerous occasions throughout his career, including the Karl Sczuka Prize in 1972 for his production “Portrait-Spiel”, the Prix Italia in 1988 for “Je Me Suis Perdu”, the Grand Prix National du Minist�re de la Culture in 1989, and the Koussevitzky Foundation Prize for Histoire du Plaisir et de la D�solation in 1990.