updated 14 September 2022
© Christophe Daguet

Edith Canat de Chizy

French composer born 26 March 1950 in Lyon.

  Édith Canat de Chizy was born in Lyon, France on 26 March 1950. She began her musical training studying the violin, an instrument she would play until she began her career as a composer. After completing her secondary studies in Lyon, Canat de Chizy moved to Paris to study art, archeology, and philosophy at the Sorbonne. At the same time, she entered the Conservatoire of Paris (CNSMDP), where she received six premiers prix, including one in composition, and began studying electroacoustics with the Groupe de recherche musicale (GRM). In 1983, as a student of Ivo Malec, she met Maurice Ohana in an encounter that was to prove a key moment in her career; she went on to publish a book on Ohana with François Porcile in 2005 (Paris, Editions Fayard Paris).

Canat de Chizy’s training as a violinist has been influential in her compositions, which now number over one hundred, and in which sinfonia concertante features extensively: Moïra (1998), a cello concerto, won the 1999 Concours Prince Pierre de Monaco and the following year, in 2000, her violin concerto Exultet, which had premiered in 1995 in a performance by Laurent Korcia, was nominated for the Victoires de la musique. Her viola concerto Les Rayons du jour was premiered in February 2005 by Ana Bela Chaves and the Orchestre de Paris, conducted by Christoph Eschenbach, and on 23 mars 2017, Missing, her second violin concerto, premiered at the Maison de la Radio in a performance by the Orchestre National de France.

Her compositions have been commissioned by the French Ministry of Culture, Radio France, the Orchestre de Paris, the IRCAM, and ensembles such as Musicatreize, Solistes XXI, Nederlands Kamerkoor, Sequenza 9.3, Accentus, and TM+. Notable pieces include her vocal works, such as Livre d’heures (1984), for soloists, women’s choir, and intrumental ensemble; Tombeau de Gilles de Rais (1993) – which was awarded the SACD Prix jeune talent musique in 1998 – and Corazon loco, created in collaboration with the choreographer Bianca Li and performed at the Théâtre National de Chaillot in January 2017. Other notable works include four string quartets, Vivere (2000), Alive (2003), Proche invisible (2010), and En noir et or (2017); her orchestral works, including Omen, which premiered in October 2006 with the Orchestre National de France, Pierre d’éclair, which premiered in March 2011 with the Orchestre National de Lyon; and her electronic compositions such as Over the Sea, which premiered on 11 May 2012 at the IRCAM’s Festival Manifeste and Visio (2016), which premiered at the Festival Présences of Radio France.

Édith Canat de Chizy has been invited as a guest composer on many occasions, including at the Arsenal de Metz, with the Orchestre National de Lyon, in Caen for the “Aspects des Musiques d’Aujourd’hui” Festival, and at the Festival de Besançon, where her piece for large orchestra Times was selected as a required piece for the final round of the International Competition for Young Conductors in 2009 and premiered by the BBC Symphony Orchestra. She was also composer-in-residence for the tenth “Présences féminines“ Festival in Toulon in 2020. Her album Visio, released in 2019 on the Solstice Label, was a selection of the Grand Prix lycéen des compositeurs in 2020.

Her work has received many awards and honors, including the International Rostrum of Composers Prize for Yell in 1990; the Prix Paul-Louis Weiller of the Académie des Beaux-Arts in 1992; a Coup de cœur de l’Académie Charles Cros for her album Moving; the SACD Jeune Talent Musique prize; and several SACEM prizes, including the Grand Prix de la musique symphonique in 2004. She was elected to the Académie des Beaux-Arts in 2005 and served as its first woman president in 2016, and the first woman composer to join the Institut de France. After directing the Conservatoire Municipal of Paris’ 15th and 7th arrondissements, she taught composition at the Paris Regional Conservatory until 2017. She is a Chevalier de la Légion d’honneur, Officier de l’Ordre du mérite, and a Commandeur des Arts et lettres. In 2016 she received the Grand Prix du Président de la République from the Académie Charles Cros for lifetime achievement.


© Ircam-Centre Pompidou, 2020

By Michèle Tosi

Édith Canat de Chizy works in the margins of recognized genres, methods, and approaches to music composition. Neither a spectralist nor a serialist, she belongs to a lineage of composers who, since Edgard Varèse, have centered their compositions around timbre and sound material. A paradigm of this approach is Pierre Schaeffer, who often repeated the maxim “Je trouve d’abord, je cherche ensuite” — “First I find, then I look.” Canat de Chizy became familiar with Schaeffer’s work through her first teacher, Ivo Malec (1925-2019), at the Conservatoire de Paris, and she was immediately attracted to this approach, in which sound becomes a direct point of access to thought processes. Throughout her career, she sought to keep this immediacy between sound and thought, despite the intermediary of the notated score. While her experience with electroacoustic music did not lead her to continue working with it, she transferred its processes and sound effects — trames (textures), layering, loops, granular synthesis, etc. — to acoustic instruments through extended techniques. Yell, her first piece for orchestra and, as she called it, one of her “mother works,” shows the influence of musique concrète. Yell is bold in its manner of shaping sound and in its large percussion section. It establishes important hallmarks of Canat de Chizy’s voice: attention to timbre, exploration of extreme registers, and a flexibility in performance brought about through timed aleatoric sections, yielding both measured and non-measured segments.

In 1983, Canat de Chizy met a second mentor who confirmed her in her artistic path: Maurice Ohana (1913-1992) taught her the power of intuition and the liberty that can be found in writing. He advised her to make music only if she felt its roots deep inside her. She dedicated to him Le Livre d’heures (The Book of Hours, 1984), a piece for female choir and sacred text. “I was fascinated by monastic life, with the rhythm of its daily Offices,” she explained.1 An emblematic work as regards her style, Le Livre d’heures showcases her treatment of the voice as an instrument. She paid close attention to the specific tone of words, often mixing the voice with instrumental timbres — a type of work she continued to pursue later with more ambitious writing techniques. Her smooth vocal melodies contrast with sharp writing for resonant percussion (glockenspiel, crotales, cymbals, etc.), showing the influence of Ohana’s style, which she quickly assimilated into her own language.

Matter, Movement

Throughout her oeuvre, Canat de Chizy uses orchestra and voices, but it is in her writing for strings that her personal touch emerges. Herself a violinist, she writes for strings in various chamber ensemble formations, from solo to quintet, even reaching a twelve-piece ensemble with Siloël (1992). She has also written a number of concerti. Few composers have so creatively explored the expressive potential of the contact between bow and string — particularly regarding malleability, texture, brightness of tone, and virtuosity.

As my work progressed, I increasingly felt the need to write music that would be in perpetual movement. A type of music that evolves more through mutation than through development; music with multiple angles, always changing, iridescent, elusive […] music that only strings can make.2

During an exceptionally prolific period in her career, for string ensemble alone, she wrote two quartets (Vivere, 2000, and Alive, 2003), three trios (Hallel, 1991, Tiempo, 1999, and Moving, 2001), and five studies in movement for cello (Formes du vent [Wind Shapes], 2003).

Her work Irisations for solo violin (1999) stands as the emblem of this period. The solo line is pushed forward by a tension between gesture and momentum; it traces an irregular and elusive melodic path as it is pulled toward the extreme high register. The music is restless, and an overflow of energy drives the piece to its final, inconclusive oscillation. “I see metaphysical meaning in this notion of movement,” Canat de Chizy writes. “It is the unanswered question, which precludes repose.”3 The repeated note at the beginning of the score, diffracted in endless arabesques, is one of her favorite musical figures, anchoring many of her string pieces in this period.

Arabesques had also appeared in Exultet (1995), her first violin concerto, written four years before Irisations. The title is a reference to an ancient Latin text sung on Easter night: “The night will shine as brightly as the day, the night is the light of my joy.” As Canat de Chizy shares, “Spirituality is a quest, a relationship with God that took me a long time to discover, and which I would like to show through my music.”4 The piece launches her long series of concerti (for string instruments, flute, clarinet, and percussion), where the orchestra serves as a soundbox and a tool for creating a sense of space around the soloist. Particularly in the third of the nine sections of Exultet, the orchestra becomes a floating and transparent canvas on which can unfold the line of the solo violin, which Canat de Chizy envisions as an “unmoving sun.” Immobility here can be understood as another aspect of movement. The violin and the orchestra, drawing on techniques from electroacoustic music, play at two different speeds. This, in one of the most poetic sections of the score, creates a sense that time is suspended.

Almost twenty years went by before Canat de Chizy wrote a second violin concerto, Missing (2016), written in memory of the violinist Devy Erlih.5 The piece is one of her most daring and virtuosic. Her confidence to embark on this new adventure in sound was reinforced by her own mastery of the violin and by her two stays at IRCAM, where she learned new ways to explore timbre and extended registers. In Missing, the violinist plays without temperament on high harmonics, which resemble electronic frequencies in their purity of tone. Canat de Chizy thinks of these high frequencies on the violin as pointing to another world of sound positioned between the human and the divine.

After Moïra for solo cello, Les Rayons du jour (The Day’s Rays) — her third concerto, this time for viola — is another cornerstone in her compositional style. The piece’s title is that of a painting by Nicolas de Staël. Spatialization is paramount, as Canat de Chizy carefully pulls resonances from the viola by way of a fluid counterpoint between instrumental lines. Wind instruments within the orchestra are paired, while the viola remains somewhat outside the orchestral texture, enabling free exploration of the instrument’s warmth in the low register, as well as the brightness of its timbre in the high register. The three parts of the concerto, “Déchirure” (Tear, or Rip), “Mouvement,” and “Transparence,” are three ways for the composer to put into sound the material that caught her attention in de Staël’s painting. She shows the depth of her writing for percussion in this piece, which is orchestrated for a large percussion section. The opening material for xylophone is striking, as are the broad gestures and relays of instruments that sweep through the orchestra.

Although writing for percussion came naturally — almost as much as for strings — it was only in 2015-2016 that Canat de Chizy wrote a percussion concerto. Seascape features her percussion of choice: ringing metals (cowbells, Taiwanese gong, bell plates), wood and skin percussion (polyblocks, mokubios, tom drums, and tumbas), as well as keyboards (marimba, vibraphone, glockenspiel, and crotales), to which the piano is added. Piano is rare in her works, and it is used here as a resonator: with the sustain pedal depressed, the instrument becomes the echo — even the spectral enhancer — of the solo percussion.

Space, Time

Canat de Chizy places the concept of elsewhere at the center of her artistic research. In writing Alio (2002), a short and tense orchestral piece dominated by dry percussion, she felt she needed to “embrace things that are beyond our reach. This has become an obsession that underlies my music like an incessant wave.”6 She considers the orchestra the best medium to convey her aesthetic need for the unreachable. Between 2002 and 2011, she wrote five orchestral pieces on the theme of being drawn to the unknown. She found the inspiration for these works in extra-musical art, including painting (de Staël, Vincent van Gogh, J.M.W. Turner, Claude Monet, James McNeill Whistler) and poetry (Hildegard von Bingen, Joseph Conrad, Pierre Reverdy, Emily Dickinson, René Char). “How can we live without the unknown ahead of us?” is a line from Char, who inspired her work Pierre d’éclair (Lightning Stone, 2010), a title borrowed from another line by him.

Canat de Chizy draws connections and builds on common themes between painting or poetry and her music, using these connections to form the dramatic framework for each piece. Following Varèse, she believes that each work finds its own form, without having to obey any type of standard. Rather, form follows the material, its progression, and its transformation: “I take raw material, I shape it, and slowly make it more precise.” She takes the time to build a preliminary skeleton of her work, which she compares to the architect’s “monster.” At first comes the raw idea, which she must catch and pin down despite its blinding brightness, fixing it on paper. Then comes the time to write, and through writing the initial idea evolves from blurred to sharp. Once time limits are decided upon, she can start thinking about register and texture, as well as rhythm and timbre. This is the process through which, according to her, an “organic form” can emerge. She tackles the question of specific pitches only at the end, based on the non-octave scales that form her harmonic syntax.7

La Ligne d’ombre (The Shadow-Line, 2004), inspired by the like-named short story by Conrad, expresses the feverish wait before a storm. Warnings sent at the outset by the temple block, mixed with reverberation from the cymbal and a low, suspended string background, lay out the tense atmosphere that leads to the piece’s climax. The string background, often unmeasured, materializes the slowness of time, like a vibrating canvas on which figures appear in a constant dialectic between mobility and immobility.

A reflection on time is also the centerpiece of Times (2010), a composition written for Besançon, the ville du temps (“city of time”), and its international Competition for Young Conductors. The piece’s gestures are efficient and give the impression of strength through the activity of wooden percussion (marimba, wood blocks, temple blocks), crackling effects made by the strings, and repeated motives in the brass. Between tension and relaxation, fiery action and almost silent suspension, the different measures of time are exercised, right up to a point when time is abandoned and becomes space.

In 2006, Omen grew from a combination of influences, namely, Van Gogh’s painting Champ de blé avec corbeaux and Rainer Maria Rilke’s Les Quatrains Valaisians. Motion, obsession, impulse, pure “timbre-spaces,” and bold extreme registers combine in Omen to express a metaphysical dimension of sound. The piece reinforces that Canat de Chizy’s music creates a place of experience.

Beyond

In 2012, Canat de Chizy received her first commission from IRCAM, which prompted her to experiment with electronics and open her mind to new artistic perspectives. With Over the Sea, she returns to the string trio, adding an accordion to interface between the timbres of the strings and electronics. The piece is inspired by one of Monet’s paintings, in which a mirroring effect gives the illusion of movement. Other titles from this electronic era include Vagues se brisant contre le vent (Waves Breaking against the Wind, 2006), Pluie, vapeur, vitesse (Rain, Steam, Speed; 2007), and Seascape. The recurrence of water and the sea as metaphors for movement, transparency, and the infinite reveals how electronics enabled Canat de Chizy to stretch these concepts “beyond.”

Over the Sealasts twenty-one minutes: substantially longer than the average piece in Canat de Chizy’s chamber repertoire. Its length is due to the use of electronics: she had to consider the time it would take for the sound to propagate in space using reverberation, Spatialisator software, a vocoder, and other tools that generate a sense of space. Although Canat de Chizy has never composed acousmatic works, the real-time electronic processing of acoustic instruments inOver the Sea yields effects that are similar to musique concrète: breathy, cloudy, granular, crackling sounds and sound-wave motion. Her work on texture through electronics has enabled her to build complex polyrhythms and explore a microtonality that crushes tones into their finest intervallic relations. A recorded electronic track is sometimes used as a fifth voice in the counterpoint, and the general spatialization allows for an even deeper use of the extreme registers.

“Her face shone with such stark radiance that it turned back my face”8 — this is an excerpt from the poet von Bingen’s twelfth-century Book of Divine Works, which Canat de Chizy chose as the text for Visio (2015), a composition for six singers, a wind ensemble with percussion, violin, and cello, and electronics. Visio once again uses electronics to explore various ways to set text to music. Von Bingen’s vision is of mystic elation provoked by the divine Word, bringing into question its relationship to music and voice. In Canat de Chizy’s piece, the Latin text precedes or is mixed with a French translation, except in “De circulo gyrante,” which is translated in its entirety. The French is spoken or intoned recto tono (on the same pitch) to facilitate intelligibility. The Latin is electronically processed. For example, the word vidi becomes a flexible sound object, all the while retaining its original meaning. The text is treated in terms of its sound and trajectories. The rich and detailed vocal lines are closely surrounded by the instrumental parts, bringing out the “multiplied voice” in which von Bingen places her hopes. The impression of non-metered time and Canat de Chizy’s pursuit of the sound continuum place the piece in the contemplative universe of von Bingen. While in other compositions Canat de Chizy’s instrumentation for percussion is almost excessive, here it is even more extensive. Tibetan bowls, steel drums, a waterphone, mokubios, a cowbell, a harmonic pipe, a water gong, a flexatone, and a turning cymbal reveal her study of color and dynamic resonance. The instrumentation lends a sense of mystery and awe. The percussion is also electronically processed, either through pre-recorded material or in real time, as in Over the Sea. If the resulting sounds were translated into visuals, the effect would be akin to a shimmering fabric, with the threads of the vocal and instrumental textures woven together in a common and ambiguous sound source. Amplification shapes the vocals and instrumentals, from the harmonics of the cello to the whistles from the mouthpieces of the clarinet and the flute. Electronic processes also spatialize and extend registers. For example, Canat de Chizy used subwoofers, which sound the lowest pitches in the spectrum. The notion of circularity mentioned in the text is picked up by an IRCAM-engineered software that enables the sound to rotate. The software also spatializes the percussion instruments. The shimmering cymbal and the gently oscillating hummed vocal parts create a breathtaking texture and display the emotive power of sound.

Paradiso (2018) for twelve-part mixed choir and two accordions is similar to Visio in that it hints at the electronic influences Canat de Chizy acquired during her stays at IRCAM. Imitating electronics, the accordion parts are microtonal, and they blend with the vocals, modifying their timbres. Paradiso was inspired by Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy. It uses the Italian text and French translation from the third part of the narrative poem, where Dante crosses the nine spheres to reach the Empyrean Heaven and subsides into the essence of God. The piece is structured around this ascending movement. From vocal fry in the bass, supplemented and projected by the accordions, to high-pitched whistling from singers who blend with the accordions’ shrill register in a low-fi filtering effect, Paradiso makes its way to the tenth heaven. Canat de Chizy honed her technique with this vividly creative work. Her unrelenting search for a place “beyond sound” is akin to de Staël’s “great light.” The result is nearly a sound utopia.

Canat de Chizy has yet to compose an opera, though she is not uninterested in the genre. In her deep appreciation for vocal music, she experimented with lyrical drama in her Tombeau de Gilles de Rais (1993), a staged oratorio for choir, soloists, and speaker. She is still waiting for the libretto that will inspire her to undertake opera in all its greatness.


1. CD liner notes Livre d’Heures (Hortus), translated by IRCAM’s translator. For a complete discography, see Resources. 
2. CD liner notes Moving (Aeon), translated by IRCAM’s translator. 
3. CD liner notes Times (Aeon), translated by IRCAM’s translator. 
4. Exultet (Timpani) CD liner notes, translated by IRCAM’s translator. 
5. The violinist Devy Erlih died on 7 February 2012, in a traffic accident. 
6. Times (Aeon) CD liner notes, translated by IRCAM’s translator. 
7. She organizes pitches in such a way that avoids the periodicity of the octave. 
8. HILDEGARD, The Book of Divine Works, translated by Nathaniel M. Campbell, in The Fathers of the Church: Mediaeval Continuation, vol. 18, Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 2018, p. 386. 

© Ircam-Centre Pompidou, 2020

  • Solo (excluding voice)
  • Chamber music
    • Sextuor for strings (1982), 15 mn, Lemoine
    • Nyx for three violas (1984), 10 mn, Lemoine
    • Nyx for three cellos (1984), 10 mn, Lemoine
    • Nyx educational piece for three violins (1984), 10 mn, Jobert
    • Saxy educational piece for alto saxophone and piano (1985), 3 mn 30 s, Billaudot
    • Black Light for oboe, viola, double bass and piano (1986), 10 mn, Jobert - Lemoine
    • Suites for two guitars (1987), 10 mn, Billaudot
    • Hallel for string trio (1991), 15 mn, Jobert - Lemoine
    • Estampes for piano and four percussionists (1997), 16 mn, Jobert - Lemoine
    • Tiempo string trio n° 2 (1999), 7 mn, Lemoine
    • Vivere string quartet n°1 (2000), 14 mn, Lemoine
    • Moving string trio n°3 (2001), 12 mn, Lemoine
    • Alive string quartet n° 2 (2003), 13 mn, Lemoine
    • Wild for viola and cello (2003), 5 mn 30 s, Lemoine
    • Canto a due educational piece for two violins (2004), 1 mn 50 s, Lemoine
    • Libertysurf educational piece for violin and piano (2004), 2 mn 12 s, Lemoine
    • En bleu et or for viola and piano (2005), 6 mn, Lemoine
    • Dance hommage à Antoine Bourdelle, for violin and vibraphone (2006), 9 mn, Lemoine
    • Burning for clarinet, piano, violin and cello (2007), 12 mn, Lemoine
    • Trance for harpsichord, cymbalum and percussion (2009), 13 mn, Lemoine
    • elec Le vol blanc for two violins and electronics (2010), 12 mn, Lemoine
    • Proche invisible string quartet n°3 (2010), 20 mn, Lemoine
    • Orph'Aeon for Chinese flute and percussion (2011), 1 mn 30 s, Lemoine
    • elec ircam Over the sea for accordion, string trio and electronics (2011-2012), 22 mn, Lemoine [program note]
    • Cinq miniatures for piano and violin (2013), 7 mn 30 s, Lemoine
    • L'Ibis rouge for flute, clarinet, piano and cello (2014), 5 mn, Lemoine
    • En noir et or string quartet n °4 (2017), 9 mn 45 s, Durand
    • Bells trio for mandolin, guitar and harp (2019), 11 mn, Lemoine
    • Sparkle for clarinet, piano and violin (2019), 9 mn 15 s, Lemoine
    • Beyond for flute and string trio (2020), 8 mn, Lemoine
    • O God ! string quartet n°5 (2020), 9 mn, Lemoine
    • elec Arcanes for two accordions and electronics (2021), Lemoine
    • J'ai vu le ciel ouvert for viola and organ (2021), 7 mn, Lemoine
    • Suono for organ and two accordions (2021), Lemoine
  • Instrumental ensemble music
    • Luceat educational piece for ten violins (1983), 10 mn, Jobert - Lemoine
    • Yell for orchestra (1985), 20 mn, Jobert - Lemoine
    • Kyoran for ensemble (1986), 10 mn, Jobert
    • Appels for ensemble (1989), 12 mn, Jobert - Lemoine
    • De Noche for orchestra (1991), 18 mn, Jobert - Lemoine
    • Siloël for string orchestra (1992), 10 mn, Jobert - Lemoine
    • Alphaï for ensemble (1993), 10 mn, Jobert - Lemoine
    • Alio for orchestra (2001-2002), 10 mn, Lemoine
    • Nedjma for orchestra (2003), 13 mn, Lemoine
    • Intrada La septième trompette for orchestra (2004), 3 mn, Lemoine
    • La Ligne d'ombre for orchestra (2004), 9 mn, Lemoine
    • Omen for orchestra (2006), 18 mn, Lemoine
    • La Maison du miroir educational piece for string orchestra (2007), 5 mn, Lemoine
    • Pluie, vapeur, vitesse for ensemble (2007), 10 mn, Lemoine
    • Deux miniature for orchestra (2009), 4 mn, Lemoine
    • Times for large orchestra (2009), 12 mn, Lemoine
    • Pierre d'éclair for large orchestra (2010), 12 mn, Lemoine
    • Couleur d'abîme for orchestra (2015), 12 mn 30 s, Lemoine
  • Concertant music
    • Exultet for violin and orchestra (1995), 18 mn, Jobert
    • Moïra for cello and orchestra (1998), 20 mn, Lemoine
    • Lands away homage to Emily Dickinson, for cymbalum and string orchestra (1999), 15 mn, Lemoine
    • Falaises for string quartet and principal cello (2003), 10 mn, Lemoine
    • Les Rayons du jour Hommage à Nicolas de Staël, for viola and orchestra (2004), 20 mn, Lemoine
    • Vagues se brisant contre le vent for flute and ensemble (2006), 15 mn, Lemoine
    • Drift concerto for clarinet and orchestra (2013), 20 mn, Lemoine
    • Missing concerto for violin and orchestra (2016), 18 mn, Durand
    • Seascape concerto for percussion and orchestra (2015-2016), 15 mn 30 s, Lemoine
    • Missing II concerto for violin and ensemble (2020), 16 mn, Lemoine
    • Outrenoir for viola and ensemble (2021), Lemoine
    • Sunrise for clarinet and orchestra (2022), 10 mn, Lemoine
  • Vocal music and instrument(s)
    • Litanie for mezzo-soprano and flute in G (1982), 10 mn, Lemoine
    • Récitatif for soprano and percussion (1982), 10 mn, Inédit
    • Livre d'Heures for vocal quartet or female choir and instrumental ensemble (1984), 21 mn, Jobert - Lemoine
    • stage Tombeau de Gilles de Rais oratorio for baritone, two reciters, children's choir including a soloist, mixed choir and orchestra (1993), 50 mn, Jobert - Lemoine
    • Messe de l'Ascension liturgical version, for vocal ensemble, children's voice soloist, liturgical choir ad libitum and ensemble (1996), 35 mn, Jobert - Lemoine
    • Messe de l'Ascension concert version, for soprano, choir and ensemble (1996), 21 mn, Jobert - Lemoine
    • Exil for six voices and six cellos (2000), 15 mn, Lemoine
    • Ode à Purcell for eight mixed voices and ensemble (2001), 21 mn, Lemoine
    • Clair et noir for twelve mixed voices, harpsichord and percussion (2002), 17 mn, Lemoine
    • Berceuse - Mon Ame est en peine orchestration of two popular Berber songs, for soprano, choir and orchestra (2003), 7 mn, Lemoine
    • La Sorcière de Jasmin oratorio in Occitan in four tableaux for narrator, mixed choir and instrumental ensemble (2003-2004), 25 mn, Lemoine
    • Suite de la nuit for children's choir and string sextet (2005), 11 mn, Lemoine
    • stage Corazon Loco choreographic show by Blanca Li, for eight voices and percussion (2006), 60 mn, Lemoine
    • Heaven for twelve mixed voices and saxophone quartet (2007), 12 mn, Lemoine
    • P'oasis educational piece for children's choir, flute, clarinet and vibraphone (2007), 5 mn, Lemoine
    • A song of joys for mixed choir and orchestra (2008), 14 mn, Lemoine
    • Prière de Christophe Colomb for four male voices, narrator and piano (2008), 14 mn, Lemoine
    • Duerme for twelve mixed voices and percussion (2012), 5 mn 15 s, Lemoine
    • Et c'est le souvenir... sixth and last painting in a collective musical fresco on the life of Joan of Arc, for soprano, narrator and wind ensemble (2012), 7 mn, Inédit
    • L'Invisible for twelve female voices and trumpet (2012), 5 mn 30 s, Lemoine
    • Sombra for three female voices and viola (2012), 11 mn, Lemoine
    • Hadewijch ou la fureur d'aimer triptych on the Spiritual Poems of Hadewijch of Antwerp for three female voices, four male voices and viola da gamba (2013), 33 mn, Inédit
    • Kyrie for children's choir for two equal voices and organ (2013), 3 mn 30 s, Lemoine
    • Voilé, dévoilé lyrical scene for female voice and orchestra based on a poem by Philippe Jaccottet (2014), 20 mn 30 s, Lemoine
    • As a blues arrangement of an extract from the score of the choreographic show Corazon loco, for soprano and instrumental ensemble (2015), 4 mn 30 s, Lemoine
    • elec ircam Visio for six voices, instrumental and electronic ensemble (2015), 24 mn 30 s, Inédit
    • Staël, peindre l'inaccessible for narrator and instrumental ensemble (2016), 40 mn, Inédit
    • Le front de l'aube oratorio for narrator, baritone, children's choir and orchestra (2017), 30 mn, Salabert
    • El Grito for voice and piano (2018), 3 mn 30 s, Alphonse Leduc
    • Paradiso for mixed choir and accordion duo (2018), 15 mn, Lemoine
    • Sound and silence for soprano, clarinet and percussion (2018), 8 mn, Lemoine
    • Apocalypsis for choir and orchestra (2020), 19 mn 30 s, Lemoine
  • A cappella vocal music
    • Llama for four-part mixed choir (1986), 18 mn, Jobert - Lemoine
    • Canciones for twelve mixed voices (1992), 14 mn, Jobert - Lemoine
    • Messe de l'Ascension short version, for twelve mixed a cappella voices (1996), 12 mn, Jobert - Lemoine
    • To Gather Paradise for choir a cappella (2001), 13 mn, Lemoine
    • Quatrains for twelve mixed voices (2004), 10 mn, Lemoine
    • Dios for chamber choir a cappella (2005), 12 mn, Lemoine
    • La Chanson des orphelins for children's choir (2005), 5 mn 30 s, Lemoine
    • Suite de la nuit for choir a cappella (2005), 11 mn, Lemoine
    • Suite de la nuit for children's choir a cappella /i> (2006), 11 mn, Lemoine
    • Dancing in the wind for double choir (2007), 9 mn 30 s, Lemoine
    • Vuelvete for six voices a cappella (2007), 8 mn, Lemoine
    • Nunc dimittis for mixed choir a capella (2015), 5 mn, Lemoine
    • Amore for five female voices (2019), 5 mn, Lemoine
  • 2022
    • Sunrise for clarinet and orchestra, 10 mn, Lemoine
  • 2021
  • 2020
    • Apocalypsis for choir and orchestra, 19 mn 30 s, Lemoine
    • Beyond for flute and string trio, 8 mn, Lemoine
    • Missing II concerto for violin and ensemble, 16 mn, Lemoine
    • O God ! string quartet n°5, 9 mn, Lemoine
    • Over the sky for accordion, 6 mn, Lemoine
  • 2019
    • Amore for five female voices, 5 mn, Lemoine
    • Bells trio for mandolin, guitar and harp, 11 mn, Lemoine
    • Sparkle for clarinet, piano and violin, 9 mn 15 s, Lemoine
    • World Song for organ, 8 mn, Lemoine
  • 2018
    • El Grito for voice and piano, 3 mn 30 s, Alphonse Leduc
    • Paradiso for mixed choir and accordion duo, 15 mn, Lemoine
    • Sound and silence for soprano, clarinet and percussion, 8 mn, Lemoine
    • Sun Dance for organ, 7 mn, Lemoine
  • 2017
    • En noir et or string quartet n °4, 9 mn 45 s, Durand
    • Le front de l'aube oratorio for narrator, baritone, children's choir and orchestra, 30 mn, Salabert
  • 2016
  • 2015
    • As a blues arrangement of an extract from the score of the choreographic show Corazon loco, for soprano and instrumental ensemble, 4 mn 30 s, Lemoine
    • Couleur d'abîme for orchestra, 12 mn 30 s, Lemoine
    • Lament for viola, 8 mn, Lemoine
    • Nunc dimittis for mixed choir a capella, 5 mn, Lemoine
    • elec ircam Visio for six voices, instrumental and electronic ensemble, 24 mn 30 s, Inédit
  • 2014
    • L'Ibis rouge for flute, clarinet, piano and cello, 5 mn, Lemoine
    • Voilé, dévoilé lyrical scene for female voice and orchestra based on a poem by Philippe Jaccottet, 20 mn 30 s, Lemoine
  • 2013
    • Cinq miniatures for piano and violin, 7 mn 30 s, Lemoine
    • Drift concerto for clarinet and orchestra, 20 mn, Lemoine
    • Hadewijch ou la fureur d'aimer triptych on the Spiritual Poems of Hadewijch of Antwerp for three female voices, four male voices and viola da gamba, 33 mn, Inédit
    • Kyrie for children's choir for two equal voices and organ, 3 mn 30 s, Lemoine
  • 2012
    • Duerme for twelve mixed voices and percussion, 5 mn 15 s, Lemoine
    • Et c'est le souvenir... sixth and last painting in a collective musical fresco on the life of Joan of Arc, for soprano, narrator and wind ensemble, 7 mn, Inédit
    • L'Invisible for twelve female voices and trumpet, 5 mn 30 s, Lemoine
    • elec ircam Over the sea for accordion, string trio and electronics, 22 mn, Lemoine [program note]
    • Sombra for three female voices and viola, 11 mn, Lemoine
  • 2011
  • 2010
  • 2009
    • Deux miniature for orchestra, 4 mn, Lemoine
    • En mille éclats for violin, 7 mn, Lemoine
    • Times for large orchestra, 12 mn, Lemoine
    • Trance for harpsichord, cymbalum and percussion, 13 mn, Lemoine
  • 2008
  • 2007
    • Burning for clarinet, piano, violin and cello, 12 mn, Lemoine
    • Dancing in the wind for double choir, 9 mn 30 s, Lemoine
    • Heaven for twelve mixed voices and saxophone quartet, 12 mn, Lemoine
    • La Maison du miroir educational piece for string orchestra, 5 mn, Lemoine
    • P'oasis educational piece for children's choir, flute, clarinet and vibraphone, 5 mn, Lemoine
    • Pluie, vapeur, vitesse for ensemble, 10 mn, Lemoine
    • Vuelvete for six voices a cappella, 8 mn, Lemoine
  • 2006
    • stage Corazon Loco choreographic show by Blanca Li, for eight voices and percussion, 60 mn, Lemoine
    • Dance hommage à Antoine Bourdelle, for violin and vibraphone, 9 mn, Lemoine
    • Omen for orchestra, 18 mn, Lemoine
    • Suite de la nuit for children's choir a cappella /i>, 11 mn, Lemoine
    • Vagues se brisant contre le vent for flute and ensemble, 15 mn, Lemoine
  • 2005
  • 2004
  • 2003
    • Alive string quartet n° 2, 13 mn, Lemoine
    • Berceuse - Mon Ame est en peine orchestration of two popular Berber songs, for soprano, choir and orchestra, 7 mn, Lemoine
    • Falaises for string quartet and principal cello, 10 mn, Lemoine
    • Formes du vent five studies of movement, based on poems by Pierre Reverdy, for cello, 10 mn, Lemoine
    • Nedjma for orchestra, 13 mn, Lemoine
    • Wild for viola and cello, 5 mn 30 s, Lemoine
  • 2002
    • Alio for orchestra, 10 mn, Lemoine
    • Clair et noir for twelve mixed voices, harpsichord and percussion, 17 mn, Lemoine
  • 2001
  • 2000
    • Exil for six voices and six cellos, 15 mn, Lemoine
    • Vivere string quartet n°1, 14 mn, Lemoine
    • Véga for organ, 7 mn, Lemoine
  • 1999
    • Irisations for violin, 7 mn, Lemoine
    • Lands away homage to Emily Dickinson, for cymbalum and string orchestra, 15 mn, Lemoine
    • Tiempo string trio n° 2, 7 mn, Lemoine
  • 1998
  • 1997
    • Estampes for piano and four percussionists, 16 mn, Jobert - Lemoine
  • 1996
    • Messe de l'Ascension liturgical version, for vocal ensemble, children's voice soloist, liturgical choir ad libitum and ensemble, 35 mn, Jobert - Lemoine
    • Messe de l'Ascension concert version, for soprano, choir and ensemble, 21 mn, Jobert - Lemoine
    • Messe de l'Ascension short version, for twelve mixed a cappella voices, 12 mn, Jobert - Lemoine
  • 1995
    • Exultet for violin and orchestra, 18 mn, Jobert
  • 1993
    • Alphaï for ensemble, 10 mn, Jobert - Lemoine
    • stage Tombeau de Gilles de Rais oratorio for baritone, two reciters, children's choir including a soloist, mixed choir and orchestra, 50 mn, Jobert - Lemoine
  • 1992
    • Canciones for twelve mixed voices, 14 mn, Jobert - Lemoine
    • Siloël for string orchestra, 10 mn, Jobert - Lemoine
  • 1991
    • De Noche for orchestra, 18 mn, Jobert - Lemoine
    • Hallel for string trio, 15 mn, Jobert - Lemoine
  • 1989
    • Appels for ensemble, 12 mn, Jobert - Lemoine
  • 1987
    • Suites for two guitars, 10 mn, Billaudot
  • 1986
    • Black Light for oboe, viola, double bass and piano, 10 mn, Jobert - Lemoine
    • Kyoran for ensemble, 10 mn, Jobert
    • Llama for four-part mixed choir, 18 mn, Jobert - Lemoine
  • 1985
    • Saxy educational piece for alto saxophone and piano, 3 mn 30 s, Billaudot
    • Yell for orchestra, 20 mn, Jobert - Lemoine
  • 1984
    • Livre d'Heures for vocal quartet or female choir and instrumental ensemble, 21 mn, Jobert - Lemoine
    • Nyx for three violas, 10 mn, Lemoine
    • Nyx for three cellos, 10 mn, Lemoine
    • Nyx educational piece for three violins, 10 mn, Jobert
    • Tlaloc for percussion, 13 mn, Jobert - Lemoine
  • 1983
    • Luceat educational piece for ten violins, 10 mn, Jobert - Lemoine
  • 1982
    • Litanie for mezzo-soprano and flute in G, 10 mn, Lemoine
    • Récitatif for soprano and percussion, 10 mn, Inédit
    • Sextuor for strings, 15 mn, Lemoine

Liens Internet

(liens vérifiés en septembre 2022).

Bibliographie

  • Edith CANAT DE CHIZY, Entre nécessité et liberté, entretiens avec François Porcile, livre avec 1 DVD, éditions Cig’art, 2008.
  • Edith CANAT DE CHIZY,François PORCILE, Maurice Ohana, éditions Fayard, 2005.
  • Edith CANAT DE CHIZY, « Du spirituel dans l’art », Revue des deux mondes, 2001, n° 1, p. 48-53.
  • Pascale GUITTON-LANQUEST, « Edith Canat de Chizy : Canciones del Alma », Intemporel, mars 1997, n° 21, p. 1-6.
  • Sophie STÉVANCE, « Le souffle d’une passion. À corps et à cordes : le quatuor Vivere d’Édith Canat de Chizy », Dissonance, n° 91, septembre 2005, p. 22-27.

Discographie

  • Edith CANAT DE CHIZY, « Over the Sea », Pierre d’éclair ; Over the Sea ; Drift, Pascal Contet (accordéon), Paul Meyer (clarinette), Quatuor Diotima, Orchestre national de Lyon, Orchestre national de Lille, Ilan Volkov et Roberto Rizzi Brignoli (dir.), Solstice, CD SOCD 312, 2015.
  • Edith CANAT DE CHIZY, « Visio », Visio ; En noir et or ; Lament ; La Ligne d’ombre ; Missing, Fanny Clamagirand (violon), Christophe Desjardins (alto), Quatuor van Kuijk, Ensemble Solistes XXI, Ensemble Multilatérale, Orchestre français des Jeunes, Orchestre national de France, Léo Warynski, David Zinman et John Storgårds (dir.), Solstice, CD SOCD 359, 2019.
  • Edith CANAT DE CHIZY, « Tlaloc », Trance ; Dance ; Seascape ; Tlaloc, solistes, Orchestre de Caen, Vahran Mardirossian (dir.), UMV, CD 18001, 2019.
  • Edith CANAT DE CHIZY, « Times. L’œuvre pour orchestre », Times ; La Ligne d’ombre ; Yell ; Alio ; Omen, Orchestre symphonique de la BBC, direction : Kazuki Yamada, Orchestre de Besançon Montbéliard Franche-Comté, direction : Peter Csaba, Nouvel orchestre philharmonique, direction : Michiyoshi Inouë, Orchestre Poitou-Charentes, direction : Peter Csaba, Orchestre national de France, direction : Alain Altinoglu, 1 cd æon, 2011, AECD 1105.
  • Edith CANAT DE CHIZY, « Les rayons du jour », Alive ; Wild ; Formes du vent ; Falaises; Les rayons du jour, Quatuor Ebène, Emmanuelle Bertrand : violoncelle, Ana-Bela Chaves : alto, Orchestre de Paris, direction : Christoph Eschenbach, 1 cd Solstice, 2007, SOCD 234.
  • Edith CANAT DE CHIZY, « Livre d’Heures », Livre d’Heures ; Messe brève pour l’Ascension ; Véga, Chœur Britten, ensemble Les Temps Modernes, direction : Nicole Corti, Loïc Mallié : orgue, 1 cd Hortus, 2007, 051.
  • Edith CANAT DE CHIZY, Canciones, dans « French Choral Music 3 », avec Swan Song de Maurice Ohana, Nederlands Kamerkoor, direction : Roland Hayrabedian, 1 cd Globe Codaex, 2006, GLO 5229.
  • Edith CANAT DE CHIZY, En bleu et or, dans « Tenebrae »  Arnaud Thorette : alto et Johan Farjot : piano, avec des œuvres de Philippe Hersant, Nicolas Bacri, Karol Beffa, Bruno Letort et Thierry Escaich, 1 cd Accord-Universal, 2006, 442 8464.
  • Edith CANAT DE CHIZY, Véga, dans « Passions », Jean-Christophe Revel : orgue, avec des œuvres de Claudio Merulo, Régis Campo, Louis Couperin, Brice Pauset, Nicolas de Grigny, Gérard Pesson, Bruno Mantovani, 1 cd aeon, 2004, AE0420.
  • Edith CANAT DE CHIZY, « Moving », Irisations ; Tiempo ; Moving ; Hallel ; Vivere ; Danse de l’aube, Trio à cordes de Paris, Quatuor Parisii, Diego Tosi : violon, Marc Siffert : contrebasse, 1 cd æon, 2002, AE021.
  • Edith CANAT DE CHIZY, Suite de l’eau, Jean Horreaux et Jean-Marie Trehard, 1 cd MFA-Radio France, coll. « Répertoires polychromes 3 », avec des œuvres de Michael Jarrell, Yoshihisa Taïra, Georges Boeuf, Philippe Fénelon, Jean-Christophe Feldhandler, 2001, MFA 216032.
  • Edith CANAT DE CHIZY, Exultet ; Siloël; Moïra, Laurent Korcia : violon, Sonia Wieder-Atherton : violoncelle, Philharmonie de Lorraine, direction : Pascal Rophé, 1 cd Timpani, 1999, 1C1048.
  • Edith CANAT DE CHIZY, Tombeau de Gilles de Rais, Lionel Peintre : baryton, Feodor Atkine et Jean Boissery : récitants, Camillo Angarita : l’enfant, Brigitte Peyre : soprano, Mireille Quercia : alto, Patrice Balter et Richard Taylor : basses, Maîtrise de Paris, ensemble Musicatreize, Philharmonie de Lorraine, direction : Roland Hayrabedian, 1 cd Verany, 1994, PV795091.
  • Edith CANAT DE CHIZY, Yell ; Hallel ; Canciones ; De Noche, Orchestre philharmonique de Radio-France, direction : Michiyoshi Inouë, Trio à cordes de Paris, Ensemble Musicatreize, 1 cd REM, 1994, REM 311246, Grand Prix de l’Académie du Disque 1994, Choc du Monde de la Musique.
  • Edith CANAT DE CHIZY, Suites pour deux guitares, Jean Horreaux et Jean-Marie Trehard, 1 cd REM, REM 311 206.

Filmographie

  • Émission consacrée à l’Orchestre Poitou-Charentes, série France 2 « Le tour de France en musique , comprend l’exécution intégrale de De Noche sous la direction d’Ernst Schelle, filmée en l’Église Saint Pierre d’Oléron, le 1er juillet 1993. Production Caméras Continentales, réalisation Gérard Lafont, durée 1 h 28’, 1993.
  • Les Voix de l’imaginaire, un portrait d’Édith Canat de Chizy. Production Les Films du Village/Mezzo, avec le soutien de la Sacem, réalisation François Porcile (extraits de*Tombeau de Gilles de Rais,*Irisations, Danse de l’aube, Nyx, Hallel, Luceat, Siloel, Suites, Exil, Vega, De Noche, Canciones, Exultet, Vivere, Yell ), durée 57’10’’. Diffusions : Muzzik, 13, 17, 20, 25 et 28 décembre 2001 ; Mezzo, 30 mai 2004, 15, 16, 25 et 30 août 2005
  • Magazine culturel de LCI, 12 février 2005, reportage de Jacques Collet sur les répétitions de la création des Rayons du jour (entretiens avec Édith Canat de Chizy, Ana Bela Chaves et Christoph Eschenbach), durée : 8’. Diffusions : 12, 13 et 18 février 2005
  • Couleurs d’orchestre. Production Les films d’ici, avec le soutien du Centre National de la Cinématographie et de la Sacem, réalisation Marie-Claude Treilhou, durée 130’. Dans ce portrait de l’Orchestre de Paris, une longue séquence est consacrée aux répétitions de la création desRayons du jour, en janvier-février 2005. Sortie en salles : 19 mars 2008
  • Pas à pas, réalisation de Blanca Li sur le montage de son spectacleCorazon loco, 2010.
  • Besançon 2009, Cinquante et unième Concours international des jeunes chefs d’orchestre. 4 films d’une heure (volet 4 consacré à la finale du concours, avec l’exécution intégrale deTimes). Production Bel Air Media/ARTE, réalisation Andy Sommer. Diffusion : Arte, 25 septembre 2011
  • Sacem, Entretiens filmés avec Éric Dalmon. Sortie à l’automne 2020