Ginette Keller facts for kids
Ginette Keller (born May 16, 1925 – died June 27, 2010) was a talented French composer. She created many different kinds of music, from pieces for single instruments to large orchestral works and even operas.
About Her Life
Ginette Keller was born in a town called Asnières-sur-Seine in France. She loved music from a young age and went to study at the famous Conservatoire de Paris. There, she learned from some very important music teachers like Nadia Boulanger, Tony Aubin, and Olivier Messiaen.
In 1951, Ginette won a special award called the Second Prix de Rome. This was for her cantata, which is like a story told with music and singing, called Et l’Homme vit se rouvrir les portes. Winning this award showed how gifted she was as a composer.
Later, Ginette Keller became a teacher herself. She taught at the "Conservatoire" where she helped students learn to hear and understand music better. She also taught at the École Normale de Musique in Paris, focusing on how music is put together (analysis) and how to write different musical lines that sound good together (counterpoint).
She wrote music for many different things. She composed pieces for just one instrument, for small groups of instruments (chamber music), and for large orchestras. She also wrote two operas, which are plays where the story is told mostly through singing. A writer named Alain Germain wrote the stories for her operas.
Some of Her Music
Here are some of the musical pieces Ginette Keller composed:
- Six chants de Lumière et d'Ombre (Six Songs of Light and Shadow) for a group of wind instruments, 1965
- Variables, first performed in 1966
- Chant de Parthénope (Song of Parthenope) for flute and piano, 1968
- Girations for percussion instruments and piano, 1970
- Graphiques for a female singer (soprano) and an ensemble (small group of musicians), first performed at the Festival International du Son in 1971
- Ebauches for bassoon and piano, 1973
- Les Vieilles Dames d'Osnabrück (The Old Ladies of Osnabrück), an opera, first performed in 1983
- Les adieux d'une cantatrice sans mémoire (The Farewells of a Singer Without Memory), another opera, first performed in 1986
- Vibrations pour harpe celtique (Vibrations for Celtic Harp), 1990
- Dialogues for clarinet and piano, 1992
- Sept mouvements incantatoires (Seven Incantatory Movements) for four percussionists, drums, celesta (a keyboard instrument), and a bowed instrument
- Paramorphoses for a metal orchestra, piano, and percussion
- Et l’Homme vit se rouvrir les portes (And Man Saw the Doors Reopen), a cantata
- Tropes for piano
See also
