Jean Barraqué

Barraqué was born in Puteaux, Hauts-de-Seine. In 1931, he moved with his family to Paris. He studied in Paris with Jean Langlais and Olivier Messiaen and, through Messiaen, became interested in serialism. After completing his Piano Sonata in 1952, he suppressed or destroyed his earlier works. A book published by the French music critic André Hodeir, titled Since Debussy, created controversy around Barraqué by claiming this work as perhaps the finest piano sonata since Beethoven. As the work had still not been publicly performed, and only two other works by him had at this time, the extravagant claims made for Barraqué in this book were received with some scepticism. With hindsight, however, it is clear that Hodeir had accurately perceived the exceptional features of Barraqué's music—notably its searing Romantic intensity, which distinguishes it from the contemporaneous works of Boulez or Stockhausen. As Paul Griffiths' biography clarified, Boulez had in fact attempted to get the Barraqué Piano Sonata performed for some years after it was finished. Barraqué's music was published starting in 1963 by the Florentine businessman Aldo Bruzzichelli, who provided much-needed material assistance for the composer, but whose promotion could not perhaps compete with that of the better known Universal Edition in Vienna who published Boulez, Berio, and Stockhausen. Embracing the Parisian avant-garde, Barraqué entered into a romantic relationship with the philosopher Michel Foucault. Together, they tried to produce their greatest work, used recreational drugs heavily and engaged in sado-masochistic sexual activity. Barraqué was involved in a car accident in 1964, and his apartment was destroyed by fire in November 1968. He suffered from bad health for much of his life. Nevertheless, his death in Paris in August 1973, at the age of 45, was sudden and unexpected, and he appeared to have resumed serious work on a number of larger compositions from the Death of Virgil cycle.

• Sonata for solo violin (1949) • Trois Mélodies for soprano and piano (1950) (texts from The Song of Solomon, Baudelaire and Rimbaud) • Séquence for voice, percussion and chamber ensemble (1950–55) (text by Nietzsche; incorporates material from the Trois Mélodies) • Piano Sonata (1950–52) • Etude for three-track tape (1952–53) • Le Temps restitué for soprano, chorus and orchestra (1956–68) (text from Hermann Broch, The Death of Virgil, in French translation by Albert Kohn) •... Au delà du hasard (premier Commentaire de 'Affranchi du hasard' et du 'Temps Restitué') for four instrumental groups and one vocal group (1958–59) (text by Barraqué 'around a quotation of Hermann Broch') • Concerto for six instrumental groups and two solo instruments (vibraphone and clarinet) (1962–68) • Chant après chant for six percussionists, voice and piano (1966) (text by Barraqué and Hermann Broch)

• Sonorité jaune (1957 sketch based on Wassily Kandinsky, Der gelbe Klang) • Musique de scène for 4 clarinets (bass clarinet), 3 saxophones (alto, tenor, baritone), 2 trumpets, 2 trombones, tuba, percussion (3 players), xylophone, vibraphone, celesta, glockenspiel and piano. It also includes two reciters, "L'aventurier" (The Adventurer) and "Le pauvre homme" (The Poor Man). 1958–59. Premiere sirene Operntheater, Austria, 2017. • Discours (c. 1961): sketch for a work for voices and orchestra, text from Hermann Broch, The Death of Virgil, in French translation by Albert Kohn) • Lysanias (c. 1966–69; 1972–73): sketch for three solo voices and orchestra (text by Barraqué and Hermann Broch). The first performance was scheduled for the 1973 Royan Festival, before being cancelled due to incompletion. • Portiques du Feu (c. 1968; 1972–73): sketch for 18 solo voices (text by Barraqué and Hermann Broch) • Hymnes à Plotia for string quartet (1972–73)

* * • Griffiths, Paul: ‘La Rochelle, Royan', The Musical Times, Vol. 114, No. 1564 (Jun., 1973), p. 629 https: doi.org/10.2307/955598 https: www.jstor.org/stable/955598 * * * * * * * * *