Press release
Jean-Claude
Risset, Specialist of Computer Music,
Wins the 1999 CNRS Gold Medal
Paris, September 8, 1999
Jean-Claude Risset was born in Le Puy on March 13, 1938. He attended the Ecole Normale Supérieure, simultaneously pursuing scientific studies (the “agrégation” degree in physics in 1961, a doctorate in science in 1967) and musical studies (piano, writing, and composition with André Jolivet).
He joined the CNRS in 1961 as an “attaché de recherche” in Professor Pierre Grivet’s Electronics and Radioelectricity Laboratory. He went to the United States several times, particularly from 1964 to 1969, thanks to a grant from the General Delegation for Scientific and Technical Research (DGRST). With Max Mathews at Bell Telephone Laboratories, he developed the musical resources required for computer sound synthesis: imitations of instruments, paradoxical sounds, sound development processes. In 1969 he published a catalogue of computerized sound synthesis (a new edition was published in 1995). Musical informatics was then in its infancy, but the publication of the Music V program with this catalogue made “software synthesis” accessible to a wide public.
Following his return to France, Jean-Claude Risset continued his career as a researcher and teacher. At Orsay, where he set up a laboratory, which was later to become the Basic Electronics Institute, he developed computerized sound synthesis (1970-1971). He was appointed a lecturer at the Marseilles-Luminy multi-disciplinary teaching and research unit in the music and plastic arts department (1971-1975), and composed numerous works, the majority of which were written for the computer, either alone or with instruments and voice.
Jean-Claude Risset was in Paris from 1975 to 1979, where he took part in the creation of the Institute for Acoustic Music Research and Creation (IRCAM), along with Pierre Boulez, who entrusted him with artistic management of the “computer” department. From that point on, computers came to be used in most musical research.
Jean-Claude Risset was appointed a professor at the University of Aix-Marseilles (Luminy) from 1979 to 1985, and headed the “Arts” section of the Higher Council of Universities in 1984-1985. He returned to the CNRS in 1985 as a director of research in the Mechanics and Acoustics Laboratory (CNRS-Marseilles). He was also put in charge of the national DEA (doctoral degree program) entitled “Acoustics, signal processing, and computers applied to music” (University of the Mediterranean, formerly Aix-Marseilles, University of Paris VI, IRCAM), which was set up in 1993.
Jean-Claude Risset is renowned among the international artistic community as a musician and composer, but he is also a technician and undisputed theoretician in the field of computer music. Thanks to the originality of his activities and to his creativity, he provides a splendid example of a multi-disciplinary approach combining science and art. This unusual approach led Claude Allègre, the French Minister of National Education, Research and Technology, to ask Jean-Claude Risset to write a report on "Art, Science, and Technology" in 1998, in order to promote synergy among these disciplines.
Using the new possibilities offered by computers to carry out veritable sound micro-surgery, Jean-Claude Risset developed the simulation of instrumental sounds (analysis and synthesis) and brought out the complexity of the perception of musical sounds by creating illusions or acoustic paradoxes: glissandi that both rise and fall simultaneously, rhythms that accelerate indefinitely, sounds whose pitch appears to fall when their frequencies are doubled, etc. His research on synthesizing timbres emphasizes the perceptual importance of dynamic factors in the evolution of sound events over time. His work has given rise to numerous publications in a wide range of books and journals.
Among the work carried out by his team in Orsay and then in Marseilles, mention should be made of the distinction between tonal and spectral height, which are perceived differently by the two cerebral hemispheres, the application of signal processing methods to musical sounds, hybrid syntheses, slowdown without transposition (based on a method that can be applied to the restoration of the intelligibility of voices of divers under hyperbaric conditions), modeling of various musical sounds, and the musical application of numerous audio-digital sound effects (reverberation, chorus, modulation). Some of this research has given rise to cooperation with companies such as Yamaha, Digilog, Saphir, and ERGI.
As a composer, Jean-Claude Risset has innovated in synthesizing timbres. He is not content with composing by using sounds, but constructs sounds himself. He has illustrated this approach in numerous electro-acoustical works. Certain pieces use auditory illusions and instrumental imitations. He has also worked with the digital processing of recorded sounds. In addition, at the Media Lab of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and then in Marseilles, he developed an original approach to real-time interaction between pianist and computer, taking advantage of software that records the performer’s movements and plays counterpart on the same acoustic piano as a sensitive accompanist. He has composed and made CD recordings of numerous works for instruments, voice, computer sounds, and mixed works.
Jean-Claude Risset has received numerous prizes and awards in recognition of his contribution to enriching the musical repertory: the UFAM Prize (1963); the Dartmouth Prize (1970); in Bourges: 1st Prize for Digital Music (1980), Euphonie d’or (1992) and Prix Magisterium (1998); SACEM Prize (1981); Ars Electronica Austria (1987); Grand Prix National de la Musique (1990); Honorary Doctorate of Music, University of Edinburgh (1994); Musica Nova Prague (1995); EAR Prize, awarded by Hungarian radio (1997). His scientific work was also recognized by the 1967 Philips Prize, awarded by the Groupement des acousticiens de langue française, and he received the CNRS Bronze Medal (1971) and Silver Medal (1987), as well as the LVMH Prize (1994).
Jean-Claude Risset is a Knight of the Legion of Honor and an Officer of Arts and Letters.
The CNRS annual Gold Medal is awarded to an exceptional figure of international renown who has made an active contribution to the prestige of research.
Press Contact
CNRS :
Martine Hasler
Tel : 331 44 96 46 35
E-Mail : martine.hasler@cnrs-dir.fr
Scientific department Contact
:
Bˇatrice Revol
Tel : 331 44 96 42 32
Fax : 331 44 96 49 69
E-Mail : beatrice.revol@cnrs-dir.fr
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