Claude Ballif

A major representative of the generation that was 20 years old at the end of the Second World War, the French Composer Claude Ballif (1924-2004) created an important work (more than 100 titles) covering all musical genres. He also published major books and writtings on music (Introduction to the Metatonality, an independant way for serialism, 1956, Voyage de mon oreille,1979, Économie musicale).

Pupil of Olivier Messiaen in Paris (1948), he went to Berlin to study under Josef Rufer and Boris Blacher (1954). Ballif was one of the first French composers to participate in the Darmstadt Festival, where he was John Cage’s assistant. He also worked with Pierre Schaeffer at the Groupe de Recherches Musicales(1959).

His work was championed by great performers of his time (Hermann Scherchen, Aloys Kontarsky, The Arditti Quartet, the Percussions de Strasbourg…).

A committed pedagogue, Ballif was Messiaen's successor at the Paris Conservatoire, where he taught analysis and musical composition between 1971 and 1990. He was also Associate Professor at McGill University (1979, Montréal, Canada), as well as in Shanghai (1985)and Caracas (2000) Academies.

Independent personality, Claude Ballif kept himself aesthetic quarrels, by his independant serialisme system with« metatonalité », while remaining attentive to the trends of his time. A worthy heir of Berlioz, Debussy and Varèse, all his work is based on musical sound.

The year 2024 marked both, the centenary of his birth and the twentieth anniversary of his death.