Jean Barraqué facts for kids

Jean-Henri-Alphonse Barraqué (born January 17, 1928, died August 17, 1973) was a French composer and writer about music. He created his own special way of writing music called serialism. He didn't write a lot of pieces, but the ones he did are very unique.

Life

Barraqué was born in Puteaux, France. In 1931, his family moved to Paris. He studied music in Paris with famous teachers like Jean Langlais and Olivier Messiaen. Through Messiaen, he became very interested in serialism, a style of music that uses a specific order of notes.

After he finished his Piano Sonata in 1952, he got rid of or destroyed all his earlier works. A French music critic named André Hodeir wrote a book called Since Debussy. In this book, he said Barraqué's Piano Sonata might be the best piano sonata since Beethoven. This caused some debate because the piece hadn't even been played in public yet! People were a bit unsure about such big claims. However, looking back, it's clear that Hodeir saw how special Barraqué's music was. It had a strong, emotional feeling that was different from other composers of his time, like Boulez or Stockhausen.

Another writer, Paul Griffiths, explained that Boulez had actually tried for years to get Barraqué's Piano Sonata performed. Barraqué's music started to be published in 1963 by Aldo Bruzzichelli. This helped Barraqué a lot. However, his music wasn't promoted as widely as that of other composers published by bigger companies. Because of this, Barraqué didn't get to be part of the well-known new music festivals and concerts until much later.

Barraqué was in a car accident in 1964. Later, in November 1968, his apartment was destroyed by a fire. He also had poor health for much of his life. Even so, his death in Paris in August 1973 was sudden and unexpected. He was only 45 years old. It seemed he had started working seriously again on some larger pieces from his Death of Virgil music series.

Music and Reputation

Barraqué said he wrote about 30 pieces before the ones he decided to keep. As far as we know, he destroyed all of them. These early works included pieces for piano, violin, and a symphony. His Piano Sonata from 1952 was the first work he officially recognized.

After that, Barraqué created his only electronic piece, called Etude (1954). He made it at Pierre Schaeffer's studio. He then planned a huge series of pieces called La Mort de Virgile (The Death of Virgil). This was based on a novel by Hermann Broch called The Death of Virgil. Barraqué saw this series as his main creative project for his whole life.

The series was planned to have four parts: Water, Fire, Earth, and Air. Most of Barraqué's work went into the Fire part. This part was supposed to have thirteen pieces. Before he died, he finished two of them: Chant aprés chant (1966) and Le Temps restitué (1957/68). There are also small parts of other pieces from the series.

Barraqué also wrote ... Au delà du hasard (1958–59) for three female voices and a group of instruments. He also wrote a Concerto for clarinet, vibraphone, and a group of instruments (1962–68). These pieces are connected to The Death of Virgil but are not actually part of the main series. The only other piece by Barraqué that still exists is Séquence (1955–56). This piece uses words by Nietzsche for a soprano singer and a group of instruments. It uses parts of three earlier songs.

Barraqué used tone rows in his music in a very special way. Instead of using just one tone row for a whole piece, he would start with one row and then slightly change it to get a second one. He would use this second row for a while, then change it again to make a third. This process continued throughout the piece. He called this technique "proliferating series."

The music critic Harry Halbreich wrote that Barraqué's music often shows deep sadness. In 1998, a record company called CPO released all of his completed works on CD. They were performed by an Austrian music group called Klangforum Wien.

A main book about his music in English is a biography called The Sea on Fire by Paul Griffiths (2003). His music is now published by a German company called Bärenreiter.

Writings

Barraqué wrote many articles about other composers. These included famous names like Alban Berg, Monteverdi, Mozart, and Messiaen. He also wrote about the ideas behind modern music. His most important book was about the composer Claude Debussy (published in Paris in 1962). He also analyzed many well-known musical works, from J. S. Bach to Honegger. He used some of these analyses in his teaching. One of his few students was the British composer Bill Hopkins.

Compositions

Completed works

• Sonata for solo violin (1949)
• Trois Mélodies for soprano and piano (1950) (texts from The Song of Solomon, Baudelaire and Rimbaud)
• Séquence for voice, percussion and chamber ensemble (1950–55) (text by Nietzsche; includes parts from the Trois Mélodies)
• Piano Sonata (1950–52)
• Etude for three-track tape (1952–53)
• Le Temps restitué for soprano, chorus and orchestra (1956–68) (text from Hermann Broch, The Death of Virgil, in French)
• ... Au delà du hasard (first Commentary on 'Affranchi du hasard' and 'Temps Restitué') for four groups of instruments and one vocal group (1958–59) (text by Barraqué based on a quote from Hermann Broch)
• Concerto for six groups of instruments and two solo instruments (vibraphone and clarinet) (1962–68)
• Chant après chant for six percussionists, voice and piano (1966) (text by Barraqué and Hermann Broch)

Unfinished works

• Sonorité jaune (1957 sketch based on Wassily Kandinsky, Der gelbe Klang)
• Musique de scène for various instruments and two speakers (1958–59). It was first performed in Austria in 2017.
• Discours (around 1961): sketch for voices and orchestra, text from Hermann Broch, The Death of Virgil, in French.
• Lysanias (around 1966–69; 1972–73): sketch for three solo voices and orchestra (text by Barraqué and Hermann Broch)
• Portiques du Feu (around 1968; 1972–73): sketch for 18 solo voices (text by Barraqué and Hermann Broch)
• Hymnes à Plotia for string quartet (1972–73)

See also

In Spanish: Jean Barraqué para niños