Jean-Francois Charles

This year, we are fortunate that Gabriel Kahane is visiting the University of Iowa several times and meeting with the composers. Given his experience with orchestral writing and arranging songs, we are excited that he is going to coach students on arrangements of songs for singer (optionally playing guitar or piano) and string quartet. Gabriel Kahane shares some of his ideas on arranging on this post, including some song examples . Favorite arrangements featuring strings Among my favorite song arrangments, I want to first highlight the work of Stefan Malzew for Ute Lempper . Their collaboration on the 2012 album Paris Days, Berlin Nights is masterful. In Stefan Malzew's string writing, we can hear his love not only for the songs but also for the string quartet and its history. Here are two excerpts: First, two Kurt Weill songs: Surabaya Johnny , from Happy End and Die Moritat von Mackie Messer , from Die Dreigroschenoper (i.e. Mack the Knife , from The Threepenny Opera )...

This is the video of the premiere of the piece Montagne Pelée , for solo baritone saxophone , with optional Rubens tube . Montagne Pelée was inspired by saxophonist Kenneth Tse ’s interaction with the flames of a Rubens tube built by Dale Stille at the University of Iowa. It is also an echo of the 1902 catastrophic eruption of Mount Pelée in the Island of Martinique. The different parts of the piece trace a story from early fumaroles and eruptions to the pyroclastic surge to the remaining ashes and light. I composed the multiphonic sounds on a Yamaha baritone saxophone, model YBS-62ii. In the score, the pitch notation of the multiphonic sounds is approximative; in most cases, only two pitches are written even if more may be heard. The performer may adapt the fingerings if necessary. The piece was premiered on October 6, 2025 at the University of Iowa, featuring an introduction by Professor of Physics Frederick Skiff. Interesting: the Rubens tube was invented in 1905, 60 years a...

You might remember the premiere performance of composer Davide Ianni's Dedalo Nero, for contralto clarinet . With Davide Ianni, we had the great pleasure of sharing behind-the-scenes details about the piece during the International Clarinet Association New Music Weekend 2024 . You will find below the video of this masterclass:

When in 1463 François Villon wrote the Ballade des pendus from his prison cell, he launched a poignant appeal to his fellow human beings. Speaking on behalf of those found guilty by the courts – imprisoned or put to death, he implores his neighbors to have heart and not to condemn them a second time through their contempt and ignorance. With this song, Anika Kildegaard and I relay this call, which is still highly relevant more than five centuries later. The video also evokes a work dear to Villon: the Danse macabre from the Holy Innocents’ Cemetery in Paris , which reminds us that we are all equal in the face of death, regardless of our education, pecuniary wealth, or skin color. The song belongs to Jean-François Charles's Missa brevis Abbaye de Thélème . Missa brevis Abbaye de Thélème by Anika Kildegaard & Jean-François Charles

This summer, the Prisma group of composers & music technologists met online instead of at Ircam . The meetings took place every day from July 6 to July 9, in four different time zones: 6-8pm in Paris, Berlin & Vienna 12-2pm in Boston/Cambridge 11am-1pm in Winnipeg & Iowa City 9-11am in Los Angeles We had a great set of presentations: Hans Tutschku: Composing with Large Sound Collections Jacopo Baboni Schilingi: Le Temps de l'Écho Johannes Kretz: creative (mis)understandings Johannes Kretz: Experiences with Live-Electronics – completely on iPad and (almost) completely wireless Orjan Sandred & Julien Vincenot: Cluster Engine from PWGL into Max as part of MOZlib Orjan Sandred: Creative projects Jean-François Charles: Spectral envelopes: gaussian blur, cepstral cross-synthesis, and historical pattern recognition As per usual, the presentations touched on topics ranging from aesthetics to art & technology. We all learnt a lot. We hop...

Composer Franck Felice performed at the University of Iowa with violinist David Brooks during the Center for New Music 2017-2018 season. He invited me to perform during the Elektronik Musik Fest at Butler University this Sunday, January 26, 2020. I'm going to present a new piece for contralto clarinet (or other low clarinet) & live electronics titled In monte Oliveri . This piece constitutes the first movement of the Tenebrae Responsoria - Feria Quinta , an homage to composer Carlo Gesualdo . The score & live electronics are almost ready. The first page looks like this: I'm looking forward to meeting with the music community at Butler University! I hope to see you there if you live in the vicinity.

It was a treat to present in October this Scientific Concert with Volkan Orhon (double bass), Dan Moore (percussion), Benjamin Revis (water clock, Rijke tubes, creation of glass instruments), Ryan Clark (geologist, story about Iowa), Matthew Wortel (creation of stone instruments, preparation of thin slices of stones for visuals), Frederick Skiff (presentation), Will Borich (live media creation for Petrasonic, lighting design), and James Edel, who recorded and worked on audio and video. I hope you enjoy these video excerpts: Scientific Concert excerpts on youtube

Update: check out the Jamshid Jam album, featuring Ramin Roshandel on setār and Jean-François Charles on live electronics . According to Persian myths, Jamshid "invented music." I was thrilled on Saturday night to perform with Ramin Roshandel and his setar our Jamshid Jam : I was playing my own live remixing instrument, and we attempted to, once again, discover music. All of the electronic music is produced live, from the sound of the setar. We don't use any pre-recorded audio. Also listen to Jamshid Jam, alternate take , during one of our rehearsals.

The Latin aeris is the genitive form for aer , "air" and for aes , "bronze," airain in French. In this piece, the natural resonances of a cymbal are highlighted through a feedback system. These metal resonances translate to audible air vibrations. Aeris fits in the tradition of pieces exploring the sound of metal, like Mikrophonie I . Frederick Skiff, Professor of Physics, explains how the cymbal sounds like a butterfly wandering through hyperspace. The picture was taken by Miranda Meyer on the day of Scientific Concert's première, October 27, 2019.

Here is an inspiring Timbre Map for Strings drawn by Composer Trevor Wishart . He presents different classes of sounds and connects them in a graphical way recalling the mind map technique: This map reminds me of how Helmut Lachenmann classifies sounds and sorts them along different types of scales. This thinking mixing timbre and instrumental gesture can be used in many different contexts. I copied this fascinating drawing from Trevor Wishart's book On Sonic Art . Another great read is Audible Design . Find more information about Trevor Wishart's work and writings on his web site . Think about an instrument: what would your timbre map look like? Timbre & Strings in Concert To listen to parts of this timbre map - and surely some sounds not included on this map, make sure you come to the JACK Quartet concert on Friday, December 6, at 7:30pm in the Voxman Music Building. These wonderful musicians are playing music by Sky Macklay , Luca Francesconi , Helmut Lachenman...

I am honored to have been awarded a commission and residency at the 2019 Sampo Composition Competition , organized by musinfo . Following this award, I have composed a new piece Masse pétrie for cello and the live electronics system Sampo , which will be performed by cellist Marie Ythier . She has worked with many composers, and has recorded new works for cello and live electronics in her album Le Geste Augmenté . I'm looking forward to working with her, and to meeting the festival guest composers . What is the Sampo? The Sampo is a live electronics set-up that implements a simplified version of one algorithm available on the Lexicon sound processor LXP-15. Although the Sampo hardware is quite advanced and expensive (it includes a computer and a sound card), the software's capabilities are more limited than these offered by the original LXP-15 sound processor. Sampo implements a simplified version of the Pitch-Delay algorithm, from the Lexicon LXP-15 sound processor. C...

You are invited on Thursday night at the Canvas & Composers event, featuring the composer-librettists who created The Grant Wood Operas: Strokes of Genius : Jean-François Charles Robert Lindsey-Nassif Michael Ching With the presence of the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art staff: Executive Director Sean Ulmer Associate Curator Kate Kunau They are going to discuss the Grant Wood painting that inspired the three new operas. Canvas & Composers Thursday, March 14, 7-8 pm Cedar Rapids Museum of Art 410 Third Avenue SE, Auditorium Free and open to the public

Here are two albums I have listened to a lot in 2018: Residente's first album and Ute Lemper's Paris Days, Berlin Nights. I found Residente 's music very fresh and inspiring. The Residente album (amazon link) is truly Third Stream music: he didn't limit himself to mixing influences from around the world, but he really managed to invite musicians from different cultures to give their best and be part of a new sound. Ute Lemper is a wonderful performer. Paris Days, Berlin Nights is excellent, not just because of the singer, but also thanks to the arrangements crafted by composer and conductor Stefan Malzew . He arranged the whole repertoire for string quartet, bass, and either accordion, piano, or clarinet. The refinement of the string writing is among the very best that you'll find in such a cabaret or song context: Stefan Malzew came up with a very imaginative and beautiful variety of timbres. I hope you have a chance to listen to this music, and you have a...

Let's start with some music: here Michel Godard (serpent) performs with the Rembrandt Frerichs Trio (fortepiano, violone, drums): I am featuring the serpent in my current composition project, so I've been quite intrigued to see that Forsyth actually mentions the serpent in his great Orchestration book (amazon link) - I often recommend the string chapters to student composers. Here is what Forsyth says about the serpent (bold underlining mine): No. 44. Obsolete Wood-Wind. The Serpent. The Serpent, as we have already explained, was the predecessor of the Bass-Horn, the Russian-Bassoon , and the Ophicleide . It was really the bass of the old Zinke or Cornet à bouquin , the instrument which supplied the normal treble-part to the medieval Brass-band. All these instruments, whatever the material of their tubes, employed the same methods of tone-production and of scale-variation–the cup-mouthpiece and the laterally pierced holes. Originally the Serpent was keyless. It was me...

This summer, I had the pleasure of meeting my friends and colleagues from the Prisma group. The conference was held at Ircam , the Institute for Research and Coordination on Acoustics and Music. Örjan Sandred presented his string quartet, Jean Bresson shared his work beyond Open Music: o7 , Jacopo Baboni Schilingi presented his recent projects, asking why would there be no composer in a fashion store? . Andrea Agostini showed the developments in the bach assisted composition library for Max , before Hans Tutschku showed applications of the bach project, when linked to Max, the Kontakt sampler, and more software tools. There were also interesting presentations by Vincent Iampietro, Michele Tadini and Sami Naslin, as well as Giorgio Sancristoforo. I presented the Live Geometry durational performance , as well as how we used the Axoloti platform for New Musical Instruments . The presentation that generated the most vivid discussions was given by artist and developper Cyrille Henry...

Gentiana is a composition for double-bell trumpet augmented with cymbals, guitar, percussion, violin and cello. It was premièred by the Nebula Ensemble on June 22, 2018, during their summer festival. They just posted the video of the performance: Gentiana evokes characteristics of alpine flowering plants. The three sections of the piece are: Esprit , Vertige (from around 2:50), and Racines (starting around 5:25). In Racines , you might recognize a traditional song... Let me know if you get the quote! For more information, see my previous post showing the true digital synths for string instruments . The cymbals augmenting the trumpet's sound.

Tonight, the Nebula Ensemble with guest conductor Kornel Thomas are performing Gentiana , a new composition for trumpet, guitar, percussion, violin and cello. Concert is taking place at 7:30 p.m. at the Cherry Creek Presbyterian Church in Denver. True-digital synth for string instruments I adapted Andrew Bentley 's true-digital synth original design to string instruments: Violinist Arlo Adams and cellist Julia Emery trying out the instruments during yesterday's rehearsal: Program Notes Gentiana evokes characteristics of the alpine flowering plants used to produce herbal medicine or distilled beverages. During the three sections of the composition, Esprit , Vertige , and Racines , the musicians connect traditional techniques to the physical nature of their tools.

Absalon Crash is a composition for cymbal & live electronics. I performed the piece during the NIME 2018 opening concert. With composer Alex Christie and Virginia Tech's L2Ork laptop orchestra , we had the pleasure to perform right before Ikue Mori 's 30 minute audio-video set! This piece consists in an interpretation of Mirrored Resonances , the theme of the NIME (New Interfaces for Musical Expression) 2018 conference: the sounds build on the natural resonances of the cymbal, which are delayed, transposed, reversed – in a way, mirrored – by the effects pedal. Program notes Absalon Crash, a composition for cymbal and live electronics. Homage to Søren Absalon Larsen . A cymbal is equipped with a piezoelectric sensor and a transducer. They are connected through a custom-built effects pedal to form a feedback network. A performer acts on the system to explore different sonic worlds. The performer shapes the sound by using her/his hands on the cymbal to muffle or suppres...

Composed for the wonderful Denver-based Nebula Ensemble . A composition in three sections, evocative of the Gentian, an Alpine flower. On the illustration, the beginning of each section. I'll let you know more before the première, set for June 23, 2018.

Looking for the studio album? Visit www.electroclarinet.com Here is the live recording of Electroclarinet 4 , performed with Andrew Bentley on December 1st: Messiaen Synthesizer You can see on a previous post the schematics for the synthesizer : it is building on the tradition of the no-input mixer . I call it the Messiaen Synth not just because the piece is an homage to Olivier Messiaen: the synth itself is related to some of Messiaen's visions - it creates music out of thin air, and with two ring modulators, it is more about symmetrical harmony than about root-based harmony.