Claude Vivier

Claude Vivier (French: [klod 'vivje] VEEV-yay; baptised as Claude Roger; 14 April 1948 – 7 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 to foreign lands. He used his personal experiences to advance an avant-garde style, having written multilingual vocal music and devising his so-called langues inventées (invented languages). He is considered to be among the greatest composers in Canada's history – György Ligeti would revere Vivier as "the most important and original composer of his generation." Vivier was openly gay. After ending his brief relationship with Christopher Coe, he frequented Parisian gay bars where he solicited male prostitutes, one of whom violently attacked him in January 1983. Despite warnings from friends and his own increasing paranoia over his safety, Vivier had continued to engage in the same behaviour. On the night of 7 March, he was killed by a serial murderer who routinely deceived gay men in The Marais in order to rob and assault them.