Denis Lorrain

Lorrain, Denis

Lorrain, Denis. Composer, b Ithaca, NY, of Canadian parents, 29 Jul 1948, naturalized French 1985; B MUS (Montreal) 1971, MMA (McGill) 1973, D MUS (Paris) 1983. In 1967 he entered the University of Montreal, where his teachers were Jean-Marie Cloutier, Jean Papineau-Couture, and André Prévost. He taught 1970-3 at the University of Montreal, and 1972-3 at McGill University, where he also continued his studies with Bengt Hambraeus, Alcides Lanza, Bruce Mather, and Paul Pedersen. At the same time, he attended classes given by Serge Garant and (1973) by Iannis Xenakis at the University of Montreal.

Lorrain's interest in electronic music involved him 1970-2 in the research team Informatique-musique at the University of Montreal. On a Canada Council scholarship in 1971 he attended the Arts and Music Computer Symposium in Duluth, Minn. In 1972 he spent some time at the Center of Mathematics and Automated Music in Bloomington, Ind, with Xenakis, and also at the Centre national d'étude des télécommunications in Paris. In 1970 Lorrain won a BMI Award to Student Composers and a CLComp scholarship (1970) for Arc, which was premiered in April 1970 in Boston and performed in 1971 by the Quebec Symphony Orchestra. In 1973 he again won a BMI Award for his Suite for two guitars.

Lorrain resided in Europe 1973-9, except for a period 1974-5 when he worked at the Center of Mathematics and Automated Music in Bloomington. He studied 1973-4 at the Institute of Sonology in Utrecht and worked 1975-6 at the computer and acoustic music lab of the University of Aix-Marseilles. In 1977 he won the special composition prize Prométhée in Lourdes with his work Extrema. In 1977, he began studies at the University of Paris I and he was assistant 1977-9 at the pedagogical department of IRCAM. Upon his return to Quebec in 1980, he taught computer music and composition at the University of Montreal until 1982. He left this post to return to IRCAM where, after holding various posts, he became in 1989 technical production adviser. In 1987 he became assistant director of the electronic and computer music department SONVS at the Lyons Cons, where he also teaches. Also in 1987 he was awarded a composition prize by the New England Computer Arts Association for... black it stood as night. Lorrain is an associate of the Canadian Music Centre.

Selected Compositions

Orchestra
Arc. 1969. Str orch. Ms

Polyphrase. 1973. Chamb orch. Ms

Writings

'Analyse de la bande magnétique de l'oeuvre de Jean-Claude Risset Inharmonique,' Rapports IRCAM, 26, 1980

'A panoply of stochastic "canons",' Computer Music J, vol 4, Spring, 1980. Publ in French as 'Une panoplie de canons stochastiques,' Rapports IRCAM, 30, 1980

'Essais de formalisation en composition musicale,' D MUS thesis, U of Paris I 1981

'Situation de la synthèse sonore par ordinateur,' CUMR, 3, 1982

- et al. 'Notes on the realization of Bhakti,' Contemporary Music R: Musical Thought at IRCAM, vol 1, Oct 1984. Repr in Computer Music J, vol 8, Fall 1984. Publ in French as 'Notes sur la réalisation de Bhakti,' L'IRCAM: une pensée musicale (Paris 1984)

'Les Aventures ordinaires de la modernité,' La Traductière, 6, Summer 1988

Chamber

P-A, versions I and II. 1970. 8 speaking voices. Ms

L'Angélus. 1971 (rev 1987). Cl, tape. Ms

Suite. 1972 (rev 1973). 2 guitar. Ms

Contra mortem. 1975. Cl. Ms

Le Talon d'Achille. 1976. Fl. Ms

Extrema. 1977. Org, percussion. Ms

'Di mi se mai..'. (Leonardo da Vinci). 1979. Ww quintet, percussion, tape. Ms. RCI 546 (SMCQ)

The Other Shape. 1985. Perc, tape, Ms. Centrediscs CMC-3288 (Leroux)

Keyboard

Huit pièces. 1968. Pf. Ber 1969. CCM-1 (Cavalho)

Séquence. 1973. Org. Ms. Centrediscs CMC-1784 (Wedd)

La Nuova ricordanza. 1986. 2 harpsichord. Ms

Also electronic music including P-A, version III (1971), Génériques (1974), Droite (1974-6), P-A, version Luminy (1976), Les Portes du sombre Dis (1979) and.. . black it stood as night (1985), recorded on Computer Music Currents II (WERGO Schallplatten WER-2022-50, CD)