Tristan Murail

Tristan Murail (born 11 March 1947) is a French composer associated with the “spectral” technique of composition. Among his compositions is the large orchestral work Gondwana. Early life and studies Murail was born in Le Havre, France. His father, Gérard Murail, is a poet and his mother, Marie-Thérèse Barrois, a journalist. One of his brothers, Lorris Murail, and his younger sister Elvire Murail, a.k.a. Moka, are also writers, and his younger sister Marie-Aude Murail is a French children’s writer. First studying political science and economics, he also began playing the Ondes Martenot. This led to contact with Jeanne Loriod and thence to her brother-in-law Olivier Messiaen , with whom he subsequently studied composition at the Paris Conservatory from 1967 to 1972. He taught computer music and composition at IRCAM in Paris from 1991 to 1997. While there, he assisted in the development of Patchwork composition software. In 1973 he was a founding member of the Ensemble l’Itinéraire. Music Murail is associated with the “spectral” technique of composition, which involves the use of the fundamental properties of sound as a basis for harmony, as well as the use of spectral analysis, FM, R