updated 5 December 2022
© Caroline Doutre

David Hudry

French composer born 3 July 1978 in Nîmes.

David Hudry began his training at the Conservatoire de Montpellier while studying musicology at Paul Valéry University. In 2002, he completed his agrégation1 in music before joining the composition and new technologies class at the Conservatoire de Paris, where he was trained by Emmanuel Nunes, Stefano Gervasoni, and Luis Naón. He also took the Cursus program for composition and computer music at IRCAM with Yan Maresz in 2006. Hudry received his higher education degree in 2008 and was selected for the Royaumont Fondation composition session “Voix Nouvelles” the following year.

Particularly at the beginning of his career, Hudry took inspiration from the graphic arts, especially the works and reflections of painters such as Paul Klee and Zao Wou-Ki. Wassily Kandinsky is another reference point for his work, in particular the 1926 essay Point and Line to Plane. From Kandinsky’s reflections, Hudry developed his use of melodic line, counterpoint, and harmonic surfaces. Space became integral to his work, explored through dividing and spatializing the orchestra. Examples can be found in Räumezeit (2004) and Nachtspiegel (2008).

Hudry is interested in drama. He imagines his pieces as crossed by moving characters, in an informal narrative that shapes the piece’s progression. In Impromptu pour un monodrame (Impromptu for a monodrama) (2007), the bassoon soloist, who alternately embodies five different musical characters, faces a musical doppelgänger — a favorite notion for Hudry — created by electronics.

More recently, Hudry became interested in brownfield sites and abandoned cities. In Passage (2012), he works with the Émile Verhaeren poem Les usines (The Factories). Following several visits to Buffalo, New York, he became passionate about the history of the states in the Rust Belt. In The Forgotten City (2016), he sought to evoke the energy of these cities in their bygone days of industry. Pulse, rhythm, and timbre become key in these works. Machina humana followed in 2017 and then Rituals: Men and Machines in 2021; each used concrete sounds recorded in factories in the Arve Valley (Haute-Savoie, France) and Lower Silesia (Poland), respectively. These pieces provided Hudry the opportunity to reflect on the relationship between human and machine, a subject that has been present throughout his work since his training in electronics.

His works have been played by the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, the Ensemble intercontemporain, the Ensemble Modern, the ensemble recherche, the Freiburger Barockorchester, the Lemanic Modern Ensemble, the Arditti Quartet, the Tana Quartet, the Ensemble Multilatérale, and Ars Nova, among others. The works have been performed at festivals such as Festival Musica, Musiques démesurées, Festival Archipel, June in Buffalo, BW Ensemble-Akademie Freiburg, Montreal/New Musics, Vale of Glamorgan Festival, and Sound Festival Aberdeen.

In 2016, Col Legno released a CD profiling Hudry’s work. He is published by Éditions Musicales Artchipel.

Prizes and Awards

  • Ernst Von Siemens Composers’ Prize, 2016
  • Fondation Francis et Mica Salabert Award, 2015
  • Pierre Cardin Musical Composition Prize (Institut de France, Académie des Beaux-Arts), 2012
  • Meyer Foundation Bursary, 2006

1. In France, the agrégation is a competitive examination for civil service in the French public education system. 

Sources

Site du compositeur, Artchipel, France Musique, magazine de l’Ensemble Intercontemporain.

By

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  • Solo (excluding voice)
  • Chamber music
    • Skizze I for bass clarinet and cello (2007), 10 mn
    • Verwandlungen for string quartet (2007), 34 mn
    • Lisières for flute, bass clarinet, viola and cello (2010), 15 mn
    • Résurgences for string quartet (2010), 12 mn, BabelScores
    • Livre d'esquisses for flute, clarinet, percussion, piano, violin and cello (2012), 11 mn 30 s, Éditions musicales Artchipel
    • Intersections for flute, clarinet, percussion, piano, violin and cello (2014), 9 mn
    • elec Anamorphosis for string quartet with or without electronics (2016), 15 mn
    • Anamorphosis - fragments for string quartet (2016), 9 mn
    • Skizze II for viola and double bass (2016), 9 mn
    • [Im]pulses for flute, clarinet, piano, violin and cello (2018), 9 mn
    • elec Electro Tango for 2 accordions and electronics, for duo XAMP (2021), 3 mn
  • Instrumental ensemble music
    • Räumezeit for a large ensemble of twenty instruments divided into five groups (2004), 11 mn
    • Nachtspiegel for a large ensemble of thirty-five instruments (2008), 26 mn
    • KLANG for large ensemble of thirteen instruments (2009), 9 mn
    • Störungen for mixed ensemble made up of baroque and modern instruments (2010), 18 mn, BabelScores
    • Introduction à Iðavöllr for large orchestra (2013), 11 mn, Éditions musicales Artchipel
    • The Forgotten City (2016), 23 mn, Éditions musicales Artchipel
    • elec Machina Humana for ensemble of eighteen instruments and electronics (2017), 35 mn
    • [Re]cycle for ensemble (15 instruments) (2019), 14 mn
    • elec Rituals - Men and Machines for 11 amplified instruments, concrete factory sounds recorded in Lower-Silesian factories, electronics, and video (2021), 32 mn
  • Concertant music
    • Trois esquisses for cymbalum and ensemble of nine instruments (2009), 13 mn
  • Vocal music and instrument(s)
  • Electronic music / fixed media / mechanical musical instruments
    • elec Passeggiata sound installation for eight to fourteen speakers (2010), 35 mn
  • 2021
    • elec Electro Tango for 2 accordions and electronics, for duo XAMP, 3 mn
    • elec Rituals - Men and Machines for 11 amplified instruments, concrete factory sounds recorded in Lower-Silesian factories, electronics, and video, 32 mn
  • 2019
    • [Re]cycle for ensemble (15 instruments), 14 mn
  • 2018
    • [Im]pulses for flute, clarinet, piano, violin and cello, 9 mn
  • 2017
    • elec Machina Humana for ensemble of eighteen instruments and electronics, 35 mn
  • 2016
  • 2014
    • Intersections for flute, clarinet, percussion, piano, violin and cello, 9 mn
  • 2013
  • 2012
    • Livre d'esquisses for flute, clarinet, percussion, piano, violin and cello, 11 mn 30 s, Éditions musicales Artchipel
    • elec Passage for clarinet, trombone, percussion, soprano, viola and electronics, 12 mn
  • 2011
  • 2010
    • Lisières for flute, bass clarinet, viola and cello, 15 mn
    • elec Passeggiata sound installation for eight to fourteen speakers, 35 mn
    • Résurgences for string quartet, 12 mn, BabelScores
    • Störungen for mixed ensemble made up of baroque and modern instruments, 18 mn, BabelScores
    • elec Verwandlung II for cello and electronics, 15 mn
  • 2009
    • KLANG for large ensemble of thirteen instruments, 9 mn
    • Trois esquisses for cymbalum and ensemble of nine instruments, 13 mn
  • 2008
    • Nachtspiegel for a large ensemble of thirty-five instruments, 26 mn
  • 2007
  • 2006
  • 2005
  • 2004
    • Räumezeit for a large ensemble of twenty instruments divided into five groups, 11 mn
  • 2003

Liens internet

(liens vérifiés en décembre 2022).

Bibliogaphie

  • François-Xavier FÉRON, « Störungen (2011) de David Hudry, ou la confrontation des diapasons à travers l’emploi jumelé d’instruments baroques et modernes », dans Circuit, Volume 28, Number 2, 2018, p. 53-67, à lire en ligne.

Discographie

  • David HUDRY, Nachspiegel ; Störungen ; Introduction à Iðavöllr ; The Forgotten City, dans « Durchgang », 1 CD col legno, 2017.