Grove Music Online

Vivier, Claude
Jaco Mijnheer

https://doi.org/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.44714
Published in print: 20 January 2001
Published online: 2001

(b Montreal, April 14, 1948; d Paris, March 12, 1983). Canadian

composer. During his short career he composed about 50 works and
developed a musical style characterized by distinctive melodies and
complex orchestral timbres. He studied composition and analysis
with Gilles Tremblay at the Montreal Conservatoire where he was
considered an exceptional student. His most important work from
this period, Prolifération (1969) for ondes martenot, piano and
percussion, employs a post-serial idiom, combined with theatrical
and improvisational elements. In 1971 he received a scholarship
from the Canada Council to continue his training in Europe. He
studied electronic music at the Institute of Sonology in Utrecht and
composition with Stockhausen at the Musikhochschule in Cologne
(1972–4). Stockhausen's influence is noticeable primarily in Vivier's
employment of parametrical and mathematical compositional
techniques throughout his career.

In 1973 Vivier composed Chants for seven female voices, a work

which he often referred to as marking the true beginning of his life
as a composer. During the years he spent in Cologne he completed
four other vocal compositions. A preference for the human voice and
an emphatic melodic orientation are characteristic of Vivier’s oeuvre
as a whole. He usually set his own texts, which express on the one
hand uninhibited powers of imagination and lust for life, and on the
other an anxious obsession with death. These texts also contain
passages in a ‘language’ of Vivier’s own invention, consisting of
series of sounds which were chosen after, and in accordance with,
the notes.

On his return to Canada, Vivier lectured at the University of Ottawa

and received several commissions, among them the ambitious
orchestral work Siddhartha (1976) composed wholly on the basis of
a single melodic phrase. In the autumn of 1976 Vivier undertook a
journey through Asia, during which he spent time in Japan, Bali and
Iran. This experience was the catalyst for the development of a new
musical style. After the success of works such as Journal (1977),
Shiraz (1977) and the opera Kopernikus (1979), this style flourished,
particularly in a cycle of vocal pieces composed between 1980 and
1982. The psychological theme which emerges in these works is, in
Vivier’s words, ‘the exploration of the inner spaces’, the challenge
for each individual to probe his own unknown depths. For Vivier the
orient was a metaphor for mystery; he became fascinated with the

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 explorer Marco Polo and gave his compositions titles such as
Zipangu (Japan), Bouchara and Samarkand. Lonely Child (1980) for
soprano and chamber orchestra and Prologue pour un Marco Polo
(1981) for five solo voices and instrumental ensemble are the most
important works from this period. The harmonic and rhythmic
dimensions of these compositions are largely derived from their
principal melodies: while cadential formulae display the influence of
Gregorian chant, the suggested modality is of short duration as all
12 notes of the chromatic scale are systematically employed. Both
the sectional nature of the form and the homorhythmic texture offer
stable backgrounds for a rich exploration of orchestral timbres (what
the composer called ‘colours’), the most striking aspect of Vivier's
late style. These ‘colours’ are in fact chords covering the whole
instrumental range and can be understood as the sound of one large
instrument, the ensemble. They are composed using a method which
imitates electronic ring modulation: the pitches of all the parts are
calculated by a series of additions based on the frequencies of the
notes of the melody and the bass. These artificial timbres, containing
many quarter tones and harmonics, are juxtaposed with the timbre
of the gong, an instrument which Vivier used frequently in his
earliest compositions.

In 1981 the Canadian Music Council awarded Vivier the accolade of

Composer of the Year. The following year a scholarship from the
Canada Council enabled him to settle in Paris where he embarked on
an opera on the death of Tchaikovsky. He died there in 1983 in tragic
circumstances.

Works

Stage

Love Songs (ballet, 1, Vivier), 4 female vv, 3 male vv, 1977

Nanti malam (ballet, Vivier), 7vv, 1977

Kopernikus (op, 2, Vivier), 2 S, Mez, A, Bar/T, Bar, B, ob, 3 cl,

tpt, trbn, vn, perc, tape, 1979

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 Instrumental

Ens

Str Qt, 1968

Prolifération, ondes martenot, pf, perc, 1969, rev. 1976

Désintégration, [1] 2 pf, 1972, [2] 2 pf, 4 vn, 2 va, 1974

Deva et Asura, double wind qnt, 3 tpt, 2 trbn, str qt, db, 1972

Improvisation, bn, pf, 1975

Pièce, fl, pf, 1975

Pièce, vc, pf, 1975

Pièce, vn, pf, 1975

Pour violon et clarinette, 1975

Siddhartha, orch, 1976

Pulau dewata [Island of the Gods], insts [ad lib], 1977

Greeting Music, fl, ob, vc, perc, pf, 1978

Paramirabo, fl, vn, vc, pf, 1978

Orion, orch, 1979

Zipangu, 13 amp str, 1980

Et je reverrai cette ville étrange, tpt, va, vc, db, perc, pf, 1981

Samarkand, wind qnt, pf, 1981

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 Solo

Pianoforte, 1975

Pour guitare, 1975

Les communiantes, org, 1977

Shiraz, pf, 1977

5 chansons, perc, 1980

Tape

Hommage (Musique pour un vieux Corse triste), 1972

Variation I, 1972

Vocal

Choral

Musique pour une liberté à bâtir, female chorus, orch, ?1968

Musik für das Ende (Vivier), SATB, perc, 1971

Chants (Vivier), 2 S, 2 Mez, 3 A, 1973

Jesus erbarme dich (Vivier), 1973

O! Kosmos (Vivier), 1973

Journal (L. Carroll, Vivier, Novalis), S, A, T, B, SATB, perc, 1977

A Little Joke (Vivier), 1981

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 Glaubst du an die Unsterblichkeit der Seele (Vivier), SATB, 3
synth, 2 perc, 1983

Solo

Ojikawa, S, cl, perc, 1968

Hiérophanie (Vivier), S, 2 fl, cl, hn, 3 tpt, 2 trbn, 2 perc, 1971

Lettura di Dante (Dante, Vivier), S, ob, cl, bn, tpt, va, perc,
1974

Hymnen an die Nacht (Novalis, Vivier), S, pf, 1975

Liebesgedichte (Vivier), S, A, T, B, 2 ob, cl, bn, 2 hn, 2 tpt, 1975

Lonely Child (Vivier), S, chbr orch, 1980

Bouchara (Vivier), S, wind qnt, str qt, db, perc, tape, 1981

Prologue pour un Marco Polo (Chamberland, Vivier), S, A, T,

Bar, B, 6 cl, 13 str, 2 perc, 1981

Wo bist du Licht! (J.C.F. Hölderlin, Vivier), Mez, str orch, perc,

tape, 1981

3 airs pour un opéra imaginaire (Vivier), S, 2 fl, 3 ob, 2 hn, str

qt, db, perc, 1982

MSS in CDN-Tcm

Principal publisher: Dobermann-Yppan

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 Bibliography
S. Frykberg: ‘Claude Vivier in Conversation’, Musicworks,
18 (1982), 8–9

J. Rea: ‘Reflets dans l’eau … bénite. Douze images

impures: la vie et la musique de Claude Vivier’, Circuit,
1/2 (1990), 71–9

G. Ligeti: ‘Sur la musique de Claude Vivier’, Circuit, 2/1–2

(1991), 7–15

J. Mijnheer: ‘Shiraz pour piano de Claude Vivier’, Cahiers

de l’association pour l’avancement de la recherche en
musique du Québec, 13 (1991), 90–105

J. Mijnheer and T. Desjardins: ‘La chronologie des oeuvres

de Claude Vivier: historisation de la déshistoire’, Circuit,
2/1–2 (1991), 17–29

J. Rivest: ‘Claude Vivier: les oeuvres d’une discographie

imposante’, Circuit, 2/1–2 (1991), 137–61

V. Robert, ed.: ‘Claude Vivier: Writings’, Circuit, 2/1–2

(1991), 39–135

P. Tannenbaum: ‘Claude Vivier Revisited’, SoundNotes, 1

(1991), 12–27

J. Mijnheer: ‘Het akkoord voorbij: kleur volgens Claude

Vivier’, Mens en melodie, 53 (1998), 10–15

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