Gilles Tremblay
Gilles Tremblay, (September 6, 1932 – July 27, 2017) was a Canadian composer and teacher.
Gilles Tremblay
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- Name
- Gilles Tremblay
- Born
- 6 September 1932
- Birthplace
- Arvida, Quebec
- Died
- 27 July 2017
- Place of death
- Montreal, Quebec
- Occupation
- Composer, teacher
- Nationality
- Canada
- Education
- Conservatoire de musique du Québec à Montréal
- Teachers
- Yvonne Loriod · Jocelyne Binet
- Honours
- Officer of the Order of Canada · Prix Denise-Pelletier · Officer of the National Order of Quebec · Calixa-Lavallée Award
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Documentary summary
Gilles Tremblay, (September 6, 1932 – July 27, 2017) was a Canadian composer and teacher.
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Note VALÉORINE
Gilles Tremblay (1932–2017) was a composer, music educator and music teacher, among other activities, of Canadian nationality. The composer was born in Arvida and died in Montreal. Gilles Tremblay was educated at Conservatoire de musique du Québec à Montréal.
Works are held at print collection of the national Library of BAnQ. Honours include Calixa-Lavallée Award, Officer of the National Order of Quebec and Officer of the Order of Canada, among others.
Composed from admitted, traceable facts · 01 October 2026
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Documentary evidence
Documentary basis
Authority files
wikidata · Q1368010
In this article
Biography
Biography
Gilles Tremblay studied at Conservatoire de musique du Québec à Montréal. Training under Yvonne Loriod and Jocelyne Binet is recorded. Work by Gilles Tremblay is recorded in the collections of print collection of the national Library of BAnQ. Distinctions recorded are Officer of the Order of Canada, Prix Denise-Pelletier, Officer of the National Order of Quebec and Calixa-Lavallée Award.
Key facts
Key facts
• Name — Gilles Tremblay • Born — 6 September 1932 • Birthplace — Arvida, Quebec • Died — 27 July 2017 • Place of death — Montreal, Quebec • Occupation — Composer, teacher
Early life and education
Early life and education
Born in Arvida, Quebec, Tremblay studied at the conservatories of Québec in Montréal and Paris (1954–61), where his teachers included Olivier Messiaen (analysis), Andrée Vaurabourg-Honegger (counterpoint), Yvonne Loriod (piano), and Maurice Martenot (inventor of the ondes Martenot). He also attended Karlheinz Stockhausen's summer courses at Darmstadt, where he became interested in electro-acoustic techniques.
Career
Career
Tremblay returned to Quebec in 1961. He taught musical analysis at the Centre d'arts Orford and at the Conservatoire de musique du Québec in Quebec City. Beginning in 1962, and for many years, he taught composition at the Conservatoire de musique du Québec à Montréal. Among his pupils are Serge Arcuri, Raynald Arseneault, Yves Daoust, François Dompierre, Marc Hyland, Ramon Lazkano, Robin Minard, Éric Morin, Silvio Palmieri, Micheline Coulombe Saint-Marcoux, Isabelle Panneton, André Villeneuve, Claude Vivier, and Wolf Edwards. Early in his career he performed as a specialist on the ondes Martenot. A central figure in Quebec's contemporary classical music scene, Tremblay was active in many capacities including as president and artistic director of the Société de musique contemporaine du Québec. In 1983, a six-record set of Tremblay's music was included in the Anthology of Canadian Music series. The Tremblay portrait in the Canadian Composers Portraits series was released in 2003. He was the recipient of many honours including the Denise-Pelletier award and Officer of the National Order of Quebec (1991). In 2012, he was named to the Order of Canada. Tremblay died July 27, 2017, in the Montreal borough of Côte-des-Neiges–Notre-Dame-de-Grâce.
Identity
Identity
Gilles Tremblay is recorded as having received Officer of the Order of Canada, Prix Denise-Pelletier and Officer of the National Order of Quebec.
Life and career
Dated record
Life and career
The full dated record · 2 entries
1932
Gilles Tremblay born at Arvida.
2017
Gilles Tremblay died at Montreal.
Places
Named by the record
Places
Only places the record itself states, plotted where the house gazetteer settles their coordinates. Nothing is inferred from a name or a nationality.
Arvida.
Birth place
Montreal.
Death place
Compositions (selective list)
• Mobile, for violin and piano (1962) • Champs I, for piano and 2 percussionists (1965) • Cantique de durées, for seven groups of instruments (1960) • Sonorisation du Pavillon du Québec, 24-channel electronic music (1967) • Souffles (Champs II), for 2 flutes, oboe, clarinet, horn, 2 trumpets, 2 trombones, piano, 2 percussionists, and contrabass (1968) • Vers (Champs III), for 2 flutes, clarinet, trumpet, horn, 3 percussionists, 3 violins, and contrabass (1969) • Jeux de solstices, for orchestra (1974) • Oralléluiants, for soprano, bass clarinet, horn, 2 percussionists, and 3 contrabasses (1975) • Fleuves, for piano, percussion, and orchestra (1976) • Vers le soleil, for orchestra (1978) • Le Signe du lion, for horn and tam-tam (1981) • Triojubilus "À Raphaël", for flute, harp, and cowbells (1985) • Les Vêpres de la Vierge, for soprano and orchestra (1986) • Musique du feu, for piano and orchestra (1991) • L'arbre de Borobudur, for horn, 2 harps, double bass, ondes Martenot, 2 percussionists, and gamelan ensemble (1994) • L'espace du coeur (Miron-Machaut), for mixed voices and percussion (1997) • Les pierres crieront, for cello and large orchestra (1998) • A quelle heure commence le temps?, for baritone, percussion, piano, and orchestra (1999) • L'appel de Kondiaronk: symphonie portuaire, environmental work for battle sirens and 2 locomotives (2000) • String Quartet Croissant (2001) • En partage (Concerto), for viola and orchestra (2002) • L'eau qui danse, la pomme qui chante et l'oiseau qui dit la vérité, Opéra féerie based on "The Dancing Water, the Singing Apple, and the Speaking Bird" (2009)
Writings
• 1968. "Note pour Cantique de durées." Revue d'esthetique 21, nos. 2–4 ("Musiques nouvelles"): 51–58. • 1994. "Gilles Tremblay: réflexions". Circuit, musiques contemporaines. 5 (1).
Primary material
Documents and archives
scholarly publication
- Un pays à faire : le compositeur Gilles Tremblay a refusé l’Ordre du Canada, Circuit: Musiques contemporaines, 1994
Scholarly · Crossref registry · 1994
reference work
- Wikidata, structured authority record Q1368010: Gilles Tremblay
Reputable secondary · Wikidata
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
Bibliography printed in the source article · 9
- Auzolle, Cécile. De la résurgence du merveilleux : l'exemple de L'Eau qui danse, la Pomme qui chante et l'Oiseau qui dit la vérité, un opéra de Gilles Tremblay et Pierre Morency. Circuit. 20. 3. 9–42. 2010. 10.7202/044859ar.
- Bradley, Ian L. Twentieth Century Canadian Composers. GLC Publishers. 2. 197-214. 1982.
- Mather, Bruce. Gilles Tremblay. Dictionary of Contemporary Music. Dutton. 766-67. 1974.
- Mather, Bruce. Gilles Tremblay. Contemporary Canadian Composers. Oxford University Press. 75-77. 1975.
- Mather, Bruce. Gilles Tremblay. The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. Macmillan. 19. 130. 1995.
- Peyser, Joan. Boulez: Composer, Conductor, Enigma. Schirmer Books. 1976. 0-02-871700-7.
- Villeneuve, André. Souffles (Champs II), the Mobile, and the Musical Language of Gilles Tremblay. Ex tempore. 10. 2. 58–147. 2001.
- Gilles Tremblay, ou le plain-chant contemporain. Circuit, musiques contemporaines. 20. 3. 2010.
- Musique de Gilles Tremblay / Opéra et pédagogie. Les Cahiers de la Société québécoise de recherche en musique. 12. 1-2. 7-148. 2011.
References
Citations
References
Each reference names the institution holding it, so a reader may go to the document itself.
scholarly publication
Un pays à faire : le compositeur Gilles Tremblay a refusé l’Ordre du Canada, Circuit: Musiques contemporaines, 1994Crossref registry
Institutional witnessreference work
Secondary witness
Further particulars
Held on the record
Further particulars
Open the remaining particulars
Formation and teaching. Tremblay studied at Conservatoire de musique du Québec à Montréal. He trained under Yvonne Loriod and Jocelyne Binet. Tremblay received Officer of the Order of Canada, Prix Denise-Pelletier, Officer of the National Order of Quebec and Calixa-Lavallée Award.
Recognition and collections
Work by Gilles Tremblay is
print collection of the national Library of BAnQ
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 16 August 2026.
Elsewhere in Music memorabilia
43,117 published records in this field, each with its sources named.
- Gilles BoizardPerson
- Gilles JullienPerson
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- Gillian GilbertPerson
- Gillian WeirPerson
- Gillian WelchPerson
- Gillian WhiteheadPerson
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