Jean-Francois Charles

I just discovered that Jonathan Ruel posted great pictures of the Acquainted with the night concert. With singer Michael Barrett, we premiered my composition for voice, basset-horn, and live electronics. But as you may recall, four other premières took place during this musical evening. See all of the performers and composers on Jonathan's shots:

Looking for the studio album? Visit www.electroclarinet.com I recorded my own performance of Electroclarinet 1 in Shanghai. This is the direct sound from the clarinet (do you see the wireless microphone on the picture?) and the live electronics. Shanghai, October 20th, 2009. Hope you like the white clarinet bell! Picture by a member of the festival's organization. Check the program notes on this announcement. Frozen sounds in Electroclarinet 1 It's winter, and although it's not too cold in Cambridge today, it's a good time to talk about audio freeze (the equivalent of frozen frames in video). We can hear two different versions of frozen sounds in this composition: from 2:50 to 3:50, several tremolos (sometimes arpeggios) are immediately frozen, and followed most of the time by a melodic phrase. from 4:48, a high pitch (concert A) is frozen. Later, notes are added to this sound, building into a chord. The first note is added at 5:00, then 5:03, etc. The ice is mel...

Lapalu , a composition for viola and live electronics, was premiered on February 14th, 2009 by Garth Knox and myself. The video is now available: In this composition for viola and live electronics, I set up a chamber music situation for the two musicians. The violist and the live electronics performer interact, listen to each other, and follow the score that features both instrumental parts. Lapalu's Coda: viola and live electronics in dialog. For more information about the composition technique, and how the piece was inspired by a flower, check this earlier post: Formula composition in Lapalu .

Looking for the studio album? Visit www.electroclarinet.com The Hydra concerts are taking place these Thursday and Friday (December 10&11) at Paine Hall, Harvard Music Department . Hydra is Harvard University Studio for Electroacoustic Composition 's sound diffusion system: it consists in 36 speakers with multiple routing possibilities. During Thursday's 8pm concert, I will be premiering my most recent composition: Electroclarinet 2, for contrabass clarinet and live electronics. My set-up for Electroclarinet 2 (rehearsal December 8th, 2009) Electroclarinet 2 program notes Electroclarinet 2 is an homage to Claude Debussy, directly inspired by his Sonate pour Violoncelle et Piano . In this piece, Debussy follows in the steps of the great innovative composers: he explores the expressive power of new sounds and twists them with a unique sense of humor. In the tradition, he keeps surprising the audience with his fantastical imagination, a trait maybe echoed today in the m...

You are invited to the second Harvard Group for New Music concert of the year, starring Garth Knox . The concert is taking place on Saturday, February 14th, in Paine Hall , Harvard Music Building, at 8pm. Free admission. The concert will feature new compositions for solo viola by Edgar Barroso, José Luis Hurtado, Josiah Oberholtzer, Adam Roberts, Dominique Schafer, Sasha Siem, Bert Van Herck, and Tolga Yayalar. For my part, I composed Lapalu, a new work for viola and live electronics. Last Saturday, I wrote program notes. Program notes Lapalu , for viola and live electronics, with interactive video art by Ean White Lapalu was inspired by the Alpine Marsh Violet, a perennial forb of the genus Viola. This flower inhabits moist meadows and marshes. It is the feast of the Fritillary butterfly. Lapalu is a chamber music work for Viola, Live Electronics, and Interactive Video Art. It has taken its present form after a fertile improvisation session with Garth Knox on October 13th, 200...

Bagict is a duet for clarinet and saxophone. I am thrilled to dedicate this work to two friends, musicians, and scholars: Ryan Raul Banagale (have a look at amusicology.com ) and Michael Scott Cuthbert . Both of them are participants in the project 60/60. Because they joined the creation almost at the same time, I decided to pair them. The piece is called Bagict : hear a little magic and a little Babbitt (it's related to the presents each of them chose - more on that another time). Here is the current version of the first page of the score: Announcement We are very lucky: the work will be premiered next week by Vincent Daoud and Yuji Noguchi , wonderful performers of the ensemble Hic Et Nunc . An excerpt of the tasteful invitation I received - original version, of course: Freitag, 15. August 2008, ab 19.00 Uhr Théâtre de Poche, Brunngasse 1, 2502 Biel ( http://map.search.ch/biel-bienne/brunngasse-1 ) Programm: ab 19.00 Uhr     Eintreffen der Gäste 19.15...

Last Sunday, April 27th, the Dudley House Big Band performed a brand new score to The Man With The Movie Camera . The first short feature was The Great Train Robbery , with a new score performed by the Dudley House Improvisation Workshop. The concert took place in Paine Hall, Harvard Music Department . Nicolas Sidoroff - trumpeter, composer, and educator, was invited by Dudley House for this exciting project. Edwin S. Porter's The Great Train Robbery (1903) In 1993, I played clarinet in Nicolas's first version of this score (for 5 horns.) Last Sunday, we played a great updated version, with: Clarinet: Jean-François Charles Trumpet: Nicolas Sidoroff Tenor Sax: Michael Heller Baritone Sax: Alan Lenarcic Piano: Nathan Fosse Upright Bass: Nathan Haselby Drums: Ben Stanton It was a real treat to play with such awesome musicians! Dziga Vertov's The Man With The Movie Camera (1929) Dziga Vertov's 1929 masterpiece pulses with a boundless energy, and the virt...

After the premiere and the publication of the score , here is the recording of Bleu 3 : You can also listen to it or download it on last.fm . This is the live recording of the premiere, admirably performed by: Rane Moore, clarinet Gabby Diaz, violin Benjamin Schwartz, cello Yoko Hagino, piano Eric Hewitt , conductor Of course, I was wearing a blue shirt: Look inside the score New! Have a look inside the score with both amazon and google books .

Bleu 3 , my recent composition for clarinet, violin, cello, and piano, will be premiered on Saturday, Feb. 9th. The concert takes place in Paine Hall, Harvard University Music Department , at 8 p.m. The great performers will be: Rane Moore, clarinet Gabby Diaz, violin Benjamin Schwartz, cello Yoko Hagino, piano Eric Hewitt, conductor New music This concert is organized by the Harvard Group for New Music . The program includes also new music by composers: Ashley Fure Ulrich Kreppein Matthew Mendez Dominique Schafer Bert Van Herck Tolga Yayalar Look inside the score! Have a look inside the score of Bleu 3 . It will be available for purchase very soon . The instrumentation is the same as Olivier Messiaen 's Quatuor pour la fin du Temps (Quartet for the End of Time) , and you will find allusions to this piece in the score. If you can come to the concert, make sure we talk together during the after-concert reception!