Claude Vivier was born on April 14th, 1948 in Montréal, and studied composition with Gilles Tremblay and piano with Irving Heller at the Conservatory there. He subsequently went to Europe to study composition with Karlheinz Stockhausen and electronic music with Gottfried Michael Koening and Hans Ulrich Humpert.

He obtained several grants from The Canada Council and was named "Composer of the Year" by the Canadian Music Council in 1981.

The two years of study with Stockhausen revealed a musical personality with a strong predilection for monody and for writing for the voice (solo and choral). It also began to show the importance Vivier was to place on texts and unveiled a style of writing that was to stray progressively farther from the usual contemporary music trends to become more and more personal and transparent.

In 1977 Claude Vivier undertook a long journey to Asia and the Middle East. This trip had a significant influence on his writing. The great variety of musical influences he received had the effect, paradoxically, of purifying his own musical expression. Melody gradually occupies a foremost position in his works and his concept of music as being an integral part of daily life is confirmed.

Following a few years of teaching in Montréal, Claude Vivier devoted his time entirely to composition. He was writing a piece prophetically titled "Do you believe in the immortality of the soul", when he died in Paris the 7th of March 1983.

He left some forty works characterized by one of the most personal and expressive styles in the evolution of Canadian music.

Pulau Dewata (1977)
version for saxophone quartet

Pulau Dewata (Isle of the Gods in Balinese) was written after a journey to the Far-East wich in 1977, led Vivier as far as the Island of Bali. Dedicated to the Balinese, the work is described in the composer1s own words as a « tribute of love for a wonderful people who taught me so much ». First written for the McGill percussion ensemble, Pulau Dewata does not include a specific instrumentation. This is pure four-part music which can be adapted to « any combination of instruments » following certain instructions determined before-hand by the composer. The work is a succession of nine melodies (comprising from 1 to 9 tones) utilising modes and motifs reminiscent of those used by Balinese Gamelans. Although of a repetitive nature, the music develops slowly through the addition of notes to the melodies and by subtile rythmic inventions of the melodic poles (gruppettos, embellishments, etc.). The work can be divided roughly into 4 large and distinct sections proceded by a short introduction (melody 1 on tone; B flat) and a « signature » characteristic of Balinese ensembles.

Walter Boudreau's arrangement of this work takes into account the dual nature of the melodies, taht is , moments of tension and relaxation. Through the set of antiponies between the high and low registers the principal of question and response (accent and inflections) is brought forward. Let us note, incidentally, that teh use of vibrato was systematically avoided so that the intervals and their interactions could be perceived more clearly; in this way, all the « resulting » dounds (natural and artificial harmonics) produced by the friction between the intervals are clearly and distinctly perceptible.

Available on CD