Claude Vivier (1948-1983)
A recent discovery, Claude Vivier’s music is growing on me. I watched a moving documentary on his life and music. Pieces such as Lonely Child (1980) and Prologue pour un Marco Polo (1981) contain ‘fizzling’ spectral resonances by which the distinction between solo and ensemble is subverted with magic effect. Every layer in Vivier’s music is integrated in complex and beautiful ways. Towards the end of his short life, he was even inventing his own language! Orphan Vivier was murdered tragically at the age of 35.
