Pierre Mercure

Pierre Mercure is (born in Montreal 21 February 1927; died in an accident near Avallon, France 29 January 1966), Canadian composer, TV producer, bassoonist, administrator. Premier prix Harmony, Counterpoint, Deuxième prix bassoon (Conservatoire de musique du Québec à Montréal) 1949. His main composition teacher was Claude Champagne. He also studied composition briefly with Nadia Boulanger in Paris and Luigi Dallapiccola at Tanglewood.^[1]

Pierre Mercure began his compositional career in the world of ballet, composing four ballets in a short period in 1948 and 1950, going on to compose orchestral, chamber and electronic music as well. He sought to make the Canadian new music community catch up with the developments of western classical music in Europe and the United States, taking many trips to France in order to absorb its contemporary music scene.

Works

Ballet

• Dualité (1948)
• La Femme archaïque (1949)
• Lucrèce Borgia (1949)
• Emprise (1950)
• Improvisation (1961)
• Incandescence (1961)
• Structures métalliques I and II (1961)
• Tétrachromie (1963)
• Manipulations (1964)
• Surimpressions (1964)

Film

• La Forme des choses (1965)
• Élément 3 (1965)

Orchestral

• Kaléidoscope (1948)
• Ils ont détruit la ville (1950)
• Cantate pour une joie (1955)
• Divertissement (1957)
• Triptyque (1959)
• Lignes et points (1964)

Chamber

• Pantomime (1948)
• H2O per Severino (1965)

Electronic

• Jeu de hockey (1961)
• Répercussions (1961)
• Structures métalliques III (1962)
• Psaume pour abri (1963)

External links

• Pierre Mercure at The Canadian Encyclopedia
• Pierre Mercure at The Canadian Music Centre

Notes