Claude Vivier

Claude Vivier ( ; baptised as Claude Roger; 14 April 19487 March 1983) was a Canadian composer, pianist, poet and ethnomusicologist of Québécois origin. After studying with Karlheinz Stockhausen in Cologne, Vivier became an innovative member of the “German Feedback” movement, a subset of what is now known as spectral music. Between 1976 and 1977, Vivier travelled to Egypt, Japan, Iran, Thailand, Singapore, and Bali, where he came under the influence of aspects of their respective traditional musics. Despite working at a slow pace and leaving behind a small œuvre, Vivier’s musical language is vast and diverse. His place in the spectral movement of Europe entailed the manipulation of the harmonic series and led to music that incorporated microtones to replicate these frequencies, a compositional technique he would later refer to as the jeux de couleurs. He is also known for incorporating elements of serialism, dodecaphony, musique concrète, extended techniques, surrealism, traditional Québécois folk songs, and more. The themes of Vivier’s pieces are largely seen as autobiographical, often centring around loneliness and ostracization, the search for love and companionship, or voyaging