‘Cosmic Seeker’ Claude Vivier’s star ASCENDS
In 1801 Goethe wrote to Felix Mendelssohn that “where nothing new is actually produced, an art cannot make itself vividly felt.” Innovation and impact are ideas Canadian composer ClaudeVivier took to heart.
Born in 1948 to unknown parents, Vivier studied at the Conservatoire de musique de Montréal before departing for Europe in 1971, where, for three years, he studied with Karlheinz Stockhausen. Through working with the German composer (who initially disliked the French Canadian for his irreverent manner and slovenly appearance), Vivier largely discovered his distinct creative voice, one which he continued to develop outside the aegis of officially-sanctioned contemporary musicdom.
He would return to Canada periodically, and received commissions from the Société de musique contemporaine du Québec, the National Youth Orchestra of Canada, and the Canadian Music Awards. Travels through Bali in the late 1970s significantly magnified his creative sensitivities and led directly to (1980), (1980), (1981), and (1983), all intended to be part of an opera about Marco Polo. (; 1982-83), which Vivier started in Paris, is a perfect distillation of the way the composer knit life and art together. His final work depicts a character named Claude who meets a man for a sexual encounter and is later murdered by the
