Alain Louvier

Alain Louvier (born 13 September 1945) is a French composer of contemporary classical music.

Biography

Born in Paris, Louvier studied from 1953 to 1967 at the Boulogne-Billancourt Conservatory headed by Marcel Landowski, then from 1967 to 1970 at the Conservatoire de Paris with Henriette Puig-Roget, Olivier Messiaen, Tony Aubin, Robert Veyron-Lacroix, Norbert Dufourcq and Manuel Rosenthal. In 1968, he won the 161st and last annual Prix de Rome for musical composition. He then headed the École Nationale de Musique of Boulogne-Billancourt. From 1986 to 1991, he was the director of the Conservatoire de Paris. From 1991 to 2009, he taught music analysis and orchestration at the CNSMDP (Conservatoire) in Paris. From 2009 until 2013, he was again director of the Boulogne-Billancourt Conservatory

Louvier has composed pieces for piano, harpsichord, chamber music and orchestra. He is particularly known for his invention of a new piano technique (also used on organ and harpsichord) centered around the "aggressors": the 10 fingers, 2 palms, 2 fists and 2 forearms, treated individually. He forged a precise gestural vocabulary, and an adapted graphic syntax, involving these different elements.[1]

Works
  • Études pour agresseurs I (1964), II (1967) for piano
  • Études pour agresseurs III (1969) for modern harpsichord[2]
  • Études pour agresseurs IV (1967–1972) for two pianos
  • Études pour agresseurs V (1972) for harpsichord, loudspeaker and strings
  • Quintette de cuivres (Brass Quintet)
  • Sonata (1966) for two pianos
  • Chant des limbes (1969) for orchestra
  • Quatre Préludes pour cordes 1970 for one or several pianos[3]
  • Chimère (1973) for harp, premiered in 1975[4]
  • Sempre più alto (1981) for viola and piano
  • Concerto pour orchestres (1982) for orchestra and computer synthesized soundtrack
  • Envols d'écailles (1986) for flute, viola and harp
  • Concerto (1996) for viola and orchestra
  • Solstices, 5 short pieces for high voices and piano, composed in 2004 and premiered on May 20, 2008

References
  1. Castanet 2002, p. 49
  2. Castanet 2002, p. 123
  3. Castanet 2002, p. 131
  4. Castanet 2002, p. 160

Sources

  • Castanet, Pierre Albert (2002). Louvier...les claviers de Lumière. Paris: Millénaire III. ISBN 2-911906-06-3.

Further reading
  • "Entretien avec Alain Louvier", in Remy Campos, Le Conservatoire de Paris et son histoire, une institution en questions, Paris, L'Œil d'or, 2016, ISBN 9782913661790
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