Biography

(Paris, 1964)
Mark André studied at the Conservatoire Nationale Supérieur de Musique de Paris with Claude Ballif and Gerard Grisey. He won first prize in composition, counterpoint, harmony, musical analysis and research.

In 1994, at the Ecole Normale de Paris and CESR (Centre for Advanced Studies in the Renaissance) of Tours, he submitted a doctorate in musicology entitled Le compossible musicale de L'ARS subtilior."

After three years of studying at the Musikhochschule in Stuttgart, in 1996 he obtained a degree in the perfection of music composition at the Hochschule für Musik in Stuttgart in Helmut Lachenmann's class. In 1995-1996, he was a graduate at the Akademie Schloss Solitude, in 1997, in residence at the Experimental studio the Heinrich-Strobel-Stiftung, and from 1999 to 2001, resident at the Villa Medici in Rome.

Mark Andre won numerous international composition prizes, for "Fatal", "Un fini-I and II", "Le trou noir univers", "Le loin et le profond". In 2002, he received the Förderpreis Siemens Foundation in Munich for "Modell".

He received commissions from major European festivals (Donaueschingen , Darmstadt, Witten, Münchener Biennale für Musiktheater, Salzburg ...) for ensembles such as Ensemble Modern, the Kammerensemble neue Musik Berlin, Ensemble Recherche, Ensemble Alternance, les Percussions de Strasbourg and the Arditti Quartet.

In 2005 he was residing composer in Berlin, DAAD Künstlerprogramm. In 2006, during the Weimar Kunstfest, he was awarded the prize for composition of Christoph und Stephan Kaske-Stiftung in 2007 he received the Giga-Hertz-Preis of the ZKM and Studio Freiburg. Mark André taught counterpoint and instrumentation at the National Conservatory of Strasbourg and at the Musikhochschule in Frankfurt.

Mark André byJean-Noël von der Weid

Mark Andrew's music intrigues and dazzles because it is opaque and impenetrable. It is extreme music ,without sense. A break from the absence of sense that torpedes any attempt to find an immediate delight. (...)

His works are large pages, huge, tough, saturated, strangely closed on their own density. Their massive, dark colours (currently Mark André has a preference for low tones ) emphasize each note with a pure weight, never the less , casting off the superflous, leaving no way out for seduction or the cock-and-bull stories. This music is stripped but soft, with persistent vivid flashes , made with elegance at the same time stll and elusive.

composition , what the composer calls the "compositional architecture", is now in crisis One must take note of this. What has caused this: the mensural system (Franco of Cologne) used in the body of the ars subtilior in the late fourteenth century,which very early on makes him reflect on a new mechanical musical time; studies with Helmut Lachenmann for which, deep and unique, this architecture is situated between affect and concept. ("Meditate his example, said Mark André, is in a way listening to your own opus 10."). Raising the issue of links between affect and concept, between the discrepancy and the agreement is structuring the compositional act itself, and being structured by it; it is also accepting an approach that is "by essence, self-criticism and self-ethics ". These links, Mark André redefines under the form of a musical"compossibilité" (a concept of Jean Duns Scot in his Traité du premier principe) , between that which belongs to the realm of the finite and the infinite. Emanating from l'Un- fini (a title of a series of works by Mark André), a kind of blind spot,a black hole,a fundamental uncertainty as a result of the deconstruction of the musical material, its fragmentation split between space and time (...).

NOTICE

"...auf... II" is dedicated to Pierre Boulez and the Ensemble Modern soloists.

Auf ... II is the second part of a triptych (...Auf...) whose purpose is to translate into music the reason for the resurrection (Auferstehung) of Christ. Transition and the threshold, but also the possible passage from one state to another play here an important role.

The hidden idea was the following : how can a musical base fonction while playing the role of a possible transistion , and how can we develop it ? In the decisions that Andre had to make, in this context, he always relied on his intuition, which he considers an important part of his compositions. Despite this reference to the gospel, it is not religious music.

The resurrection of Christ is indeed the fundamental theme of his work, but it only appears indirectly in the background, .

In ...auf... are presented different temporal spaces and sound. The opening of new sound spaces in the composition plays a central role. What matters to André is to develop a particular tension between different impulses and responses, such as harmony and disharmony, each pulse plays a vital role. The consequent and , structured developments of these textured sounds represent the arc that overcoms the work. Gradually, everything decomposes into fragments, a process around which Andre manages to develop different categories of silence.

(Paris, 1964)
Mark Andre studied at the Conservatoire National Superieur de Musique de Paris with Claude Ballif and Gerard Grisey. He won first prize in composition, counterpoint, harmony, musical analysis and research.

In 1994, at the Ecole Normale de Paris and the CESR (Centre for the Study of Higher Renaissance) from Tours, he submits a doctorate in musicology entitled "Le compossible musical de L'Ars subtilior".

After three years of studying at the Musikhochschule in Stuttgart, graduating in 1996 with an advanced degree in music composition at the Hochschule für Musik in Stuttgart in the class of Helmut Lachenmann. In 1995-1996, he is a scholar at the Akademie Schloss Solitude, in 1997, in residence at the Experimentalstudio the Heinrich-Strobel-Stiftung, and from 1999 to 2001, resident at the Villa Medici in Rome.

Mark Andre has won numerous international composition prizes, for "Fatal", "Un fini-I et II", "Le trou noir univers", "Le loin et le profond". In 2002 he received the Förderpreis Siemens Foundation in Munich for "Modell".

He received commissions from major European festivals (Donaueschingen, Darmstadt, Witten, Münchener Biennale für Musiktheater, Salzburg ...) for ensembles such as Ensemble Modern, the Kammerensemble neue Musik Berlin, Ensemble Recherche, Ensemble Alternance, les Percussions de Strasbourg, or the Arditti Quartet.

In 2005, he was residing composer in Berlin, at DAAD Künstlerprogramm. In 2006, during the Weimar Kunstfest, he was awarded the prize for composition of Christoph und Stephan Kaske-Stiftung in 2007 he received the Giga-Hertz-Preis of the ZKM and Studio Freiburg. Mark Andre teaches counterpoint and instrumentation at the National Conservatory of Strasbourg and at the Musikhochschule in Frankfurt.

NOTICE

The "...auf..." triptych includes orchestral works that can be performed and heard separately although they were conceived as an organic whole.

Even though in "...auf..." III the heights of sounds have been organized with the help of algorithms, the formation of families and sonic sound spaces remains an important part of the structure of the piece. There is a dialectical relationship between these two forms of organization. So that unexpected indoor sound worlds may arise, the algorithmic organizations must be submitted to a rapid and massive fragmentation.

A fragmentation based on three groups of materials: non-harmonic sounds, harmonics and noisy. These three families of sounds are distinctly audible and directly visible in their archetypal form. The composition described a route, a journey through these families of sounds. To generate new sound spaces, which would be impossible to achieve by the only organization of the heights of sound and other parameters, these elements are intertwined and interpolated.

The arrangement of percussion instruments around the listener and the systematic development of a typology of responses and impulses makes the music clear. This develops a body of total sound that, in contrast to "...auf..." I and II, is no longer uniquely on stage, without the use of electronic transformations.

With electronics we are witness the development of intermediate spaces that are neither electronic nor acoustic. The process of "folding" (convolution), used here can be applied to transient sound pulses of extinction or "answers" that are, too, from acoustic materials (not synthesized). All transformations, calculated "live" in real time, implement different forms of the orchestra sound (pulses), and "bend" over other forms sound respondents. The impulse is almost thrown into another sound space.

The convolution as a sound phenomenon, spatial, morphological, represents a form of space (intermediate) and a change of space. The sounds, harmonic, non - harmonic and noisy are interlaced into impulse and responce. But one can also understand the "folds" at a existential level. We are dealing with change, the farewell, the beginning and the end of sound textures, of family sounds and interior sound spaces I would like to thank the team of Studio experimental sound art for the development of this unique and very special electronic book.

The German preposition and adverb "auf" refers to the idea of a threshold, a form of transition, of passage: in compound verbs like aufgeben (give), aufhören (stop), aufheben (remove or keep). In this piece I wanted to evoke the notion of a threshold between spaces and family sound, a threshold that also has its existential and metaphysical component. The metaphysical model of this composition is given by the Resurrection of Christ which (for believers) describes the absolutely strong and miraculous transistion from one state to another.