Manfred Kelkel

Kelkel was born in Siersburg in Saarland, then under French occupation[1]

As a student of Darius Milhaud at the Conservatoire de Paris, Kelkel "always felt a sincere admiration and almost filial recognition for his former teacher, even if, aesthetically speaking, he followed a divergent path.".[2]

From 1969 onwards, the composer resumed his university studies, obtaining a doctoral degree and a State doctorate of music and musicology, "with works that have since become authoritative in their fields",[3] from his study À la recherche de la musique polynésienne traditionnelle, in ethnomusicology, to State doctorate on lyrical music at the beginning of the 20th century (Naturalisme, vérisme et réalisme dans l'opéra). His postgraduate thesis, dedicated to the Russian composer Alexander Scriabin (Scriabine, sa vie, l'ésotérisme et le langage musical dans son œuvre), is a defining moment in his career.[3]

In his memories, Jacques Viret evokes a man "of perfect simplicity, modesty and affability", making him meet Marina Scriabin, daughter of the composer of the Mysterium, of which the Acte préalable presents a twelve-tone tuning which carried him with enthusiasm.[4]

Among the many publications by Manfred Kelkel, Jean-Jacques Velly mainly retains the book Musique des mondes, published in 1988, "a unique work of its kind which synthesizes his two activities as a composer and musicologist."[5]

Manfred Kelkel has held a number of important positions in music publishing and higher education. Music Director from 1957 to 1978 at Éditions Heugel,[3] he was a lecturer at the Universities of Paris IV, Metz, Strasbourg II and Paris XII from 1974 to 1981, before being appointed professor at Lumière University Lyon 2, from 1985 to 1991, the year he was appointed to Paris IV.[3]

Passionate about traditional Arabic music[4] and early twentieth-century Russian music, he was the thesis director of André Lischke, himself a future specialist of Tchaikovsky's music and of The Mighty Handful.[6]

Fascinated by oriental civilizations and occult practices, Manfred Kelkel decided on the basis of Tabula Smaragdina (referring to the Emerald Tablet), to apply to his compositions "in a rational and coherent manner, principles derived from Chinese esoterism, Arabic geomancy and the alchemical operations, playing on unsuspected correspondence between Buddhist mandalas, hermetic diagrams, magic squares and the art of sound".[3]

Jean-Jacques Velly undertook a brief analysis of his musical language. In the field of melody, writing is "governed by three essential elements: chromatic total, modal use of melody and the use of artificial symmetrical scales".[7] In the harmonic domain, his work "draws inspiration from Scriabin's latest works and makes extensive use of chords that are more or less complex and close to the chromatic total",[7] in a polytonality where "melody and harmony are articulated on solid landmarks, even if the resulting musical syntax has nothing in common with tonality in the narrow sense".[8]

"An admirer of Berlioz and the great Germanic orchestra school of the 19th century," his orchestral writing "is distinguished by an emphasis on the instrumental timbre in which his musical thought immediately becomes part of his orchestral work."[8] In the field of orchestration, his mastery and originality were recognized very early on, in particular by Henri Dutilleux.[8] Jacques Viret sees in Manfred Kelkel an "alchemist of sounds".[9]

In the field of rhythm, the science of the teacher and the composer come together in his scores. Philippe Reynal evokes a "real puzzle for students"![10]

Manfred Kelkel died in Paris 18 April 1999 at age 70,[11] shortly after the publication of his biography and full analysis of the works of Scriabin.[12]

• Manfred Kelkel on musiqueclassique.forumpro.fr
• Manfred Kelkel on IdRef
• Manfred Kelkel on Goodreads