Jean Lesage
Associate Professor, Area Coordinator (Music Composition)
Composition
Orchestration
Intertextuality and Music, Postmodernism, Composed interpretation/Re-composition, Canadian Music, The music of Claude Vivier
In my composition, I like to use material charged with semantic and multi-shaped referential values that I breathe into my material. I like to bring into play typical structures, 鈥渃haracters in sound鈥�, which carry 鈥渕eaning鈥� and are evocative of certain icons and idiosyncrasies of musical history. Then, through their playful handling, I use these evocations and their perceptual ambiguities to re-interpret certain historical codes by perverting and dismantling stylistic allusions鈥攁ll the time with an awareness of and a sensibility to our time.听
Using a parodic treatment fuelled by intensification, distanciation, and hidden meanings (second-degree contextualization), I divert the semantic charge of historical codes and icons by engaging in extended games of hide-and-seek which lead the listener through layers of ambiguities and misleading references. So I want to address, within the medium of music, what several theoreticians of literature call intertextuality: creating a connection鈥攚hether it be symbolic, cultural, esthetical or technical, between a given material and other earlier materials鈥攊n order to create a vast referential network that enriches, by way of multiplication, the listener鈥檚 perceptual experience.
In my works, the collision, the friction, the crossbreeding and the process of contextualization invigorate the musical discourse, as much as the traditional manipulations of purely musical parameters. Here it is a question of composing not only with sounds, but also with 鈥渕eanings鈥�. I strive for an art of metaphor using over-coding, artifice, generalized ambiguity and complex dialogue with the history of music to create a music about music.
Memory is at the core of my artistic research. In my works, I try to create a fertile exchange between the present-timeness of the work and the remoteness of previous art. A playful relationship with the history of music takes place on a number of simultaneous levels; movements involving recollection and forgetfulness, and moments that manipulate memory by reconstructing the past. Here the aim is to expose, through the unfolding of the work, the process by which memory assembles, dismantles and constructs its own past, through a constant re-evaluation of history鈥檚 shifting grounds and their relentless projection into our visions of the future. This, because memory is not objective, it is intrinsically biased and charged with meaning.
This approach does not originate from a feeling of nostalgia. There is no desire here to regain music鈥檚 paradise lost. But rather I try to substantiate the utopian idea of a bringing together of all times into the fleeting moment. Have all eras: past and future, connect through a present-day intuition of musical time.
Jean Lesage pursued his musical training with Gilles Tremblay for composition and analysis, Micheline Coulombe St-Marcoux and Yves Daoust for electronic music, Clermont P茅pin for orchestration, and with Mireille Lagac茅 for harpsichord.
Jean Lesage is very active on the Montr茅al music scene : he has been an advisory member of the Association pour la Cr茅ation et la Recherche 脡lectroacoustique du Qu茅bec, a program coordinator for the Soci茅t茅 des Concerts Alternatifs du Qu茅bec, and between 1990 and 2011, a member of the artistic committee of the Soci茅t茅 de Musique Contemporaine du Qu茅bec.
From 1987 to 1995, he was also a reporter for the program Musique actuelle, broadcast on Radio-Canada鈥檚 FM radio. For the same network, in the summer of 1996, he produced and hosted Musique du Qu茅bec, a series of 12 programs on Qu茅bec鈥檚 musical modernism. He has been on the editorial board of Circuit, Contemporary Music Journal from 2005 to 2013.
From 1995 to 2009 Jean Lesage has been regularly invited as a composer and a teacher at the Rencontre internationale de musique nouvelle at Domaine Forget.
He has been teaching at the Orford Summer Academy since 2013.
In 1997 and in 2008, he has been guest editorial director for Circuit, for special issues on Montreal composers and on the music of Claude Vivier.
Since 1999, Jean Lesage has been teaching composition, music analysis and orchestration at the Schulich School of Music of 海角社区.
To be noted among the 50-odd works he has composed so far are: 鈥擬are Fecunditatis (1986), for piano , CAPAC Prize 1987 鈥擳rois apparitions au d茅sert (1988), for mixed choir and large orchestra, Robert Flemming Prize from the Canadian Music Council 1988. 鈥擫e sentiment oc茅anique (1989), for eight instruments, commissioned by the Ensemble contemporain de Montr茅al (ECM), presented at UNESCO鈥檚 1995 Rostrum of Composers, in Paris 鈥擫es sensations confuses (1993), for chamber orchestra, commissioned by the Nouvel Ensemble Moderne, premiered in Strasbourg at the Musica1993 Festival 鈥擬asques et chim猫res (1996) for eleven instruments, commissioned by the ECM. 鈥擫es repr茅sentations surann茅es (1998) for orchestra, commissioned by l鈥橭rchestre symphonique de Qu茅bec premiered in Qu茅bec at the Musique au pr茅sent Festival 1999. 鈥擫e livre des m茅lancolies (1999) for clarinet and string quartet commissioned by the Soci茅t茅 de musique contemporaine du Qu茅bec. 鈥擯ortrait of a Sentimental Musician in a Distorting Mirror (2000) for violin and piano, commissioned by the CBC for Duo Concertante. 鈥擲tring Quartet I (2001), 鈥擲tring Quartet II (2002), 鈥擲tring Quartet III (2005) commissioned by the Quatuor Bozzini 鈥擫es m茅canismes multiples de l鈥檌vresse et de la nostalgie (2004) for large orchestra, commissioned by Radio-France et Radio-Canada, 鈥擫e projet Mozart (2006) commissioned by Trio Fibonacci, 鈥擯laisirs anciens (2008); for a capella choir commissioned by Viva Voce and 鈥擝eatitudines (2011) commissioned by the Montreal Symphony Orchestra.
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Orchestral
-Trois apparitions au d茅sert, 1988; [chorus and orch. 4333- 4331, 3 percs. 2 harps. o. Mart. pn. c茅l. Strings] (17')
-Le莽ons de t茅n猫bres, 1990; [2222-2221, timp. perc. strings].听(8')
-Cinq miniatures, 1991; [2121-2210, timp. Strings] (5')
-Les sensations confuses I, 1993; [1111/1110/pno., perc/11111] 听(15')
-Les sensations confuses II, 1994; [2232-2220, pno. timb. 2 percs. Strings] (15')
-Les repr茅sentations surann茅es, 1998; [2222/4221/pno, timb 1perc/strings 12 10 8 6 4]听 (17 ')
-La symphonie du mill茅naire听, 2000; for multiple ensembles [collective work] (45鈥�)
-Vanitas, 2004; [1111/1110/pno. perc/11111] (18 ')
-Les m茅canismes multiples de l'ivresse et de la nostalgie, 2004; [3333/4231/harp, cel., timb 2 perc/strings] (19 ')
-Beatitudines, 2010; [3333/4231/harp, 2 perc/strings] (17 ')
Ensembles
-Gagaku, 1985; [fl. ob. cl. vn. db. hp. 2 percs] (12')
-Fanfare 芦 ... und was ist denn Musik ?听 禄, 1988; [3听horns, 4 tpts. 3 tbs. 1 tuba] (10')
-Le sentiment oc茅anique, 1989; [fl. ob. cl. bn. tpt. horns, tb. db] (11')
-Masques et chim猫res, 1996; [woodwind quintet, strings quintet and piano] (14')
Chamber/Instrumental
-Un jeu de songes, 1985; clarinet (10')
-Les myst猫res de la clart茅, 1987; flute and ondes Martenot (9')
-...le soir au fond des bois鈥�, 1987; horn and piano.(8')
-F锚te de nuit, 1991; flute, ondes Martenot, 1 perc. (10')
-Ivresses songes sourdes nuits, 1994; violin (6')
-Canto d鈥檃more, 1995; cello (7')
-La m茅moire 茅quivoque, 1996; violin and piano. (11')
-Orient, 1997; violin or viola (5')
-脡l茅gie harmonique sur la mort de Marie-Antoinette, 1998; solo violin, strings and harpsichord (14')
-John Baldwin鈥檚 dream, 1998; violin and cello (4 min.)
-Eine kleine kitschige Musik, 1999; trio with piano (16')
-Le livre des m茅lancolies, 1999; quintet with clarinet (18')
-Portrait of a Sentimental Musician in a Distorting Mirror, 2000; violin and piano (10')
-String Quartet I, 2001; (16')
-String Quartet II, 2002; (18')
-String Quartet III, 2005; (15')
-Le projet Mozart, 2006; trio with piano (13')
-Mythologies, 2009; flute and piano. (10')
-Musique de salon, 2010; cello and piano. (8')
-Les heures nocturnes, 2012; violin and piano. (9')
-Rhapsodie, 2013; violin and piano. (9')
-String Quartet IV, 2014; (20')
- Saturnales, 2015; violin, clarinet, cello and piano (12鈥�)
Keyboards
-Thanatopsis, 1981; harpsichord (8')
-La tentation d鈥橝rlequin, 1984; harpsichord (13')
-Mare fecunditatis, 1986; piano (12')
-Les unit茅s discr猫tes, 1987; two harpsichords (10')
-Dischordia, 1990; piano (9')
-Babylone鈥搇a porte du Dieu, 1991; organ (17')
-La chaotique, 1994 ; harpsichord (5')
-Les cadavres exquis, 1995; harpsichord (4')
-顿茅蝉耻茅迟耻诲别, 1997; harpsichord (5')
-Le palimpseste de L眉beck, 1997; organ (7')
-Fantasia stravagante, 1997; piano (15')
-Chaconne aux nombres triangulaires, 2000; organ (9')
-Preludio quasi una fantasia, 2009; organ (5鈥�)
Vocal
-Deux po猫mes d鈥橝nne H茅bert, 1994; mezzo-soprano and piano (6')
-Souvenirs posthumes, 2002; soprano and piano (11')
-Exercices de style, 2006; soprano, clarinet and piano (13')
-Trois m茅ditations sur la vie c茅leste de Charles G. 2007; soprano and chamber orchestra (12')
-Plaisirs anciens, 2008; a capella听choir (13')
-2011 Dischordia for piano, Jeremy Thompson, 海角社区 Records
-2010 Le projet Mozart for trio with piano, Trio Fibonacci, Centerdiscs CMCCD 15710
-2008 Le livre des m茅lancolies for clarinet and String Quartet, Quatuor Bozzini and Jean Guy Boisvert, ATMA classique ACD2 2552
-2004 Quatuor 脿 cordes II for String Quartet, Quatuor Bozzini, QB CQB 040
-2004 Vanitas for chamber orchestra, Nouvel ensemble moderne, conductor Lorraine Vaillancourt, ATMA ACD2 2242
-2004 Portrait听 of a sentimental Musician听 in a Distorting Mirror for听 violin and piano, Duo Concertante, ATMA ACD2 2335
-2000 Masques et chim猫res for eleven instruments, ECM conductor V茅ronique Lacroix, ATMA ACD 2 2229
-2000 Fantasia stravagante, for piano, Marc Couroux, ATMA ACD2 2180
-1999 La m茅moire 茅quivoque, for violin and piano, Julie-Anne Derome Violon, Marc Couroux Piano, SNE-639 CD
-1997 Ivresses songes sourdes nuits, for violin, Julie-Anne Derome, ATMA ACD 2 2117
-1996 Babylone la porte du Dieu, for organ, Gis茅le Guibord,, Fonovox 7884-2
-1996 Les sensations confuses, for chamber orchestra, Nouvel ensemble moderne, conductor Lorraine Vaillancourt, Ummus UMM1
-1994 Le sentiment oc茅anique, for Octet, ECM conductor V茅ronique Lacroix, SNE-590
-1992 Les myst猫res de la clart茅, for flute and ondes Martenot, L'ensemble d鈥檕ndes de Montr茅al SNE-574
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