updated 26 September 2023
© Douglas Henderson

Clara Maïda

French composer born 2 January 1963 in Saint-Malo.

Clara Maïda’s musical research lies at the crossroads of psychoanalysis, nanoscience, and philosophy — particularly the works of Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari. She has developed dense, kinetic, branched sound networks through experimenting with structural convergences between unconscious temporal processes, musical form, and microbiological and genetic mechanisms.

Maïda’s work draws on the concept of the “rhizome” from Deleuze and Guattari, used to describe a nonlinear network that “connects any point to another point.” Using various instrumental techniques applied to different instruments and electronic tools, her pieces explore hybridization. She is interested in the sonic “inter-territory” between the psyche and the urban environment (particularly the underground), between organic and mechanical materials, between the human and the machine, and between musical sound and noise.

She calls her music “nanomusic” in reference to her bottom-up approach to composition. This is characterized by the assembly of micro-units, which she calls “pulsons” or “sound quanta,” whose connections and trajectories are constantly being rearranged by hidden forces in an elastic, non-directional, associative space-time.

Maïda holds a doctorate in composition from the University of Huddersfield, a master’s in musicology, creation, music, and society from Paris 8 University Vincennes-Saint-Denis, a state diploma in teaching piano, and a degree in psychology from Aix-Marseille University. She was also the recipient of composition grants from the Bundesregierung für Kultur und Medien 2022, the Berlin Senat 2015, and the Akademie der Künste Berlin 2006. In 2012, she was laureate of the Institut Français Programme Hors les Murs.

Maïda has received commissions from ensembles, festivals, and important institutions, and has also been composer-in-residence at several electroacoustic music studios, such as Art Zoyd, GRM, Césaré, Akademie der Künste Berlin, GMEM, the French Ministry of Culture, Radio France, Festival ECLAT (Stuttgart), Studios Électroniques de la Technische Universität, Donaueschinger Musiktage, Festival International de Guitare de Paris, SACEM/Festival Klang! (Hamburg), the DAAD’s Berliner Künstlerprogramm where she was Guest Composer in 2007-2008, and the Orchestre National de Lyon.

Her music has been played at international festivals by various ensembles and performers, such as Arditti Quartet, Neue Vocalsolisten, KNM Berlin, Les Percussions de Strasbourg, Resonanz, L’Itinéraire, Accroche Note, 2E2M, NEM, MCME, EOC, Alternance, Proxima Centauri, OENM, UI New Music, CrossingLines, Orchestre National de Lyon, Pellegrini Quartet, Theo Nabicht, Thierry Miroglio, Armand Angster, Caroline Delume, Martine Joste, Jan Michiels, Heather O’Donnell, Seth Josel, Stephen Gosling, and Michael Weilacher. Her music has been played on radio stations in Germany, France, the United Kingdom, Spain, Switzerland, Mexico, Australia, and South Africa.

In 2015, she was Guest Professor of Composition at the Catalonia College of Music in Barcelona. She has also given conferences, colloquium presentations, seminars, and masterclasses at various institutions in France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Belgium, Ireland, the United Kingdom, Australia, and New York.

Maïda lives in Paris and Berlin.


© Ircam-Centre Pompidou, 2023

Sources

Site de la compositrice.

  • Solo (excluding voice)
    • Le livre des trous for solo piano (2003), 11 mn 9 s
    • Al Aknawakht for solo percussion (2007), 8 mn 39 s
    • elec Doppelklänger for prepared and amplified solo piano (2008), 13 mn 37 s
    • elec Gitter für Gitarre for amplified guitar solo (2009), 13 mn 31 s
    • elec Later jester for solo contrabass clarinet and 6-channel electroacoustic system (2012), 11 mn 1 s
    • elec Later gambler for solo contrabass clarinet (2017), 13 mn 43 s
    • elec Lostery 2 audiovisual installation / 6-channel electroacoustic work, triptych of paintings, real objects, fabricated and painted objects, projected image. Solo contrabass clarinet and 6-channel electroacoustic device (2017), 21 mn 48 s
    • elec Lostery 2 cycle (2017), 21 mn 48 s
  • Chamber music
  • Instrumental ensemble music
  • Vocal music and instrument(s)
    • elec Anani Iniji for soprano, piano, percussion and live electronics (2001), 26 mn 32 s
    • Bowling bowls for oboe, trumpet in C, viola, double bass, and fifty children (bowls and voices) (2007), 10 mn 27 s
  • A cappella vocal music
    • elec X/Y for seven amplified singers, with resonators and additional percussive objects (2011), 12 mn 2 s
    • elec Fiori fuori for solo soprano, with resonator (2021), 6 mn 26 s
  • Electronic music / fixed media / mechanical musical instruments
    • elec Ipso facto 7-channel electroacoustic work (2007), 9 mn 34 s
    • elec Ipso Lotto 6-channel electroacoustic work (2017), 8 mn 5 s
    • elec Lostery 3 (Ipso primero) audiovisual installation / 6-channel electroacoustic work, triptych of paintings on canvas, real objects, fabricated and painted objects, animated video (2022), 9 mn 19 s
    • elec Lostery 3 (Ipso Lotto et Ipso primero) diptych of audiovisual installations / two 6-channel electroacoustic works, 2 triptychs of paintings on canvas, real objects, fabricated and painted objects, animated video (2023), 18 mn
  • 2023
    • elec Lostery 3 (Ipso Lotto et Ipso primero) diptych of audiovisual installations / two 6-channel electroacoustic works, 2 triptychs of paintings on canvas, real objects, fabricated and painted objects, animated video, 18 mn
  • 2022
    • elec Lostery 3 (Ipso primero) audiovisual installation / 6-channel electroacoustic work, triptych of paintings on canvas, real objects, fabricated and painted objects, animated video, 9 mn 19 s
  • 2021
    • elec Fiori fuori for solo soprano, with resonator, 6 mn 26 s
  • 2017
    • elec Ipso Lotto 6-channel electroacoustic work, 8 mn 5 s
    • elec Later gambler for solo contrabass clarinet, 13 mn 43 s
    • elec Lostery 2 audiovisual installation / 6-channel electroacoustic work, triptych of paintings, real objects, fabricated and painted objects, projected image. Solo contrabass clarinet and 6-channel electroacoustic device, 21 mn 48 s
    • elec Lostery 2 cycle, 21 mn 48 s
    • elec Web studies - [1/ Web-wake ; 2/ Web-wave ; 3/ Web-wane] for violin, viola, harp, prepared piano, 4-channel live electronics and interactive video, 18 mn 50 s
  • 2016
    • elec Web-wave for violin, viola, harp, prepared piano and 4-channel live electronics, 11 mn 1 s
  • 2013
  • 2012
    • elec Kinêm(a)bstract for amplified flute, saxophone, prepared piano and percussion, 12 mn 35 s
    • elec Later jester for solo contrabass clarinet and 6-channel electroacoustic system, 11 mn 1 s
  • 2011
    • elec X/Y for seven amplified singers, with resonators and additional percussive objects, 12 mn 2 s
  • 2010
  • 2009
  • 2008
    • elec Doppelklänger for prepared and amplified solo piano, 13 mn 37 s
    • elec Kinê-Diffr(a)ct for amplified flute, saxophone, guitar, prepared piano, percussion, violin and viola, 13 mn 19 s
    • elec Mutatis mutandis for twelve amplified strings, 12 mn 56 s
  • 2007
    • Al Aknawakht for solo percussion, 8 mn 39 s
    • Bowling bowls for oboe, trumpet in C, viola, double bass, and fifty children (bowls and voices), 10 mn 27 s
    • elec Ipso facto 7-channel electroacoustic work, 9 mn 34 s
  • 2006
    • elec Fluctuatio (in)animi for flute, violin, viola, cello, double bass and electronics, 13 mn 42 s
  • 2005
    • elec Via rupta for flute, clarinet, trombone, violin, viola, cello, double bass, et 8-channel electronics, 8 mn 55 s
  • 2004
  • 2003
  • 2002
  • 2001
    • elec Anani Iniji for soprano, piano, percussion and live electronics, 26 mn 32 s

Liens internet

(liens vérifiés en septembre 2023).

Bibliographie

Textes sur Clara Maïda
  • Jacques AMBLARD, « Clara MAÏDA », dans Compositrices, l’égalité en acte, Laure MARCEL-BERLIOZ, Omer CORLAIX et Bastien GALLET : Directeurs de publication, Éditions MF, collection « Paroles », Paris : Éditions MF, 2019, pages 317-321.
  • Christine ANDERSON, « Clara MAÏDA. Kein Schutz. Nirgends », portrait de la compositrice publié dans Berliner Künstlerprogramm of the DAAD, Blickwechsel Zwei. 50 Jahre Berliner Künstlerprogramm des DAAD. Die Jahre 1988-2013, Berlin: DAAD, 2014, pp. 253-254).
  • Andreas ENGSTRÖM, « Either we win or we lose », entretien avec Clara MAÏDA publié dans Positionen, n°134, février 2023, à lire en ligne. (lien vérifié en septembre 2023).
  • Christine FISCHER, « Nur ein netter Moment », entretien avec Clara MAÏDA, in Landeshaupstadt Stuttgart, Kompositionspreis 2015. Jubiläum 1995-2015, 2015, pp. 74-77.
  • Christine VIAL KAYSER, Sylvie COËLLIER (Eds.), « Musical Installations: Problematic Works » par Jacques AMBLARD, in Installation Art, as Experience of Self, in Space and Time, Vernon Press, 2021, pp. 203-204.
Textes de Clara Maïda
  • Clara MAÏDA, « Abstract Cartographies and Assemblages of Minimal Sound Units : A Body-Organon ?, in Machinic Assemblages of Desire. Deleuze and Artistic Research 3, Paulo de ASSIS et Paolo GIUDICI (éd.), Leuven University Press, février 2021, Louvain-BE (pages 93-106).
  • Clara MAÏDA, « Towards a Sound Nanorevolution and Artivism », in Heroines of Sound, Feminismus und Gender in Elektronischer Musik, Sabine SANIO et Bettina WACKERNAGEL (éd.), Hofheim: Wolke Verlag, Juin 2019, Berlin-DE (pages 54-59).
  • Clara MAÏDA, « Chocs et entrechocs, analyse et catalyse », Éditions L’Unebévue, École Lacanienne de Psychanalyse, Paris, Actes de la journée de colloque « Correspondances musiciennes et création musicale » organisée à l’Ircam, Paris, par la revue de psychanalyse Superflux et la revue musicale Entretemps le 17 janvier 2015 (pages 90-113).
  • Clara MAÏDA, « Für eine Nanomusik », in Revue Klangzeitort (Neue Zeitschrift für Musik, Das Magazin für neue Tone), Universität der Künste, Berlin-DE (pages 60-63).). Publication allemande de l’article de Clara Maïda : « Für eine Nanomusik », Universität der Künste, Berlin.
  • Clara MAÏDA, « Worstsaid Ho, worstheard Ho », in Positionen, 85 (Texte zur aktuellen Musik), « Schreibkrise ? », Universität der Künste, Berlin-DE, Nauck, G. (éd). Verlag Positionen, Berlin-DE (pages 37-39).
  • « …ça écrit ça écrit ça écrit ça… », in Revue Filigranes n°6 (Musique, Esthétique, Sciences, Société), « Musique et inconscient », Éditions Delatour, Paris (pages 145-160).

Discographie

  • Clara MAÏDA, Web-wave, Ensemble 2E2M, Pierre Roullier : direction, dans «Art Zoyd Studios - Expériences de vol 10, 11, 12, 13», 4 Cd In-Possible Records, 2019, EXP 18.
  • Clara MAÏDA, «in corpore vili», 1 Cd Edition RZ, 2010, Ed. RZ 10017.
  • Clara MAÏDA, «Anania Iniji», Agatha Mimmersheim : soprano ; Duo Symblêma, 1 Cd Effects Input, 2001, EI 15.