André Laporte

André Laporte (born 12 July 1931) is a Belgian composer (Bouckaert 2001, 128; Mertens and Volborth-Danys 2001).

Biography

Laporte was born in Oplinter, near Tienen in Flemish Brabant. He studied music with Edgard de Laet, Flor Peeters, and Marinus De Jong at the Lemmens Institute in Mechelen, and musicology and philosophy at the Catholic University of Leuven from 1953 to 1957. From 1960 to 1964 he participated annually in the Internationale Ferienkurse für Neue Musik in Darmstadt, where he came into contact with Pierre Boulez, Bruno Maderna, Luciano Berio, György Ligeti, and Mauricio Kagel, amongst others (Mertens and Volborth-Danys 2001; Wylin and Diependaele 2008). In addition, he attended the Second and Third Cologne Courses for New Music organized by Karlheinz Stockhausen, in 1964–65 and 1965–66 where, in addition to Stockhausen, he had the opportunity of meeting the composers Henri Pousseur and Luciano Berio, as well as the conductor Michael Gielen (Stockhausen 1971, 198–200).

Starting in 1953, Laporte taught music at a secondary school in Brussels. In 1963 he helped to establish the SPECTRA work group at the Institute for Psycho-Acoustic and Electronic Music (IPEM). In 1972, together with Herman Sabbe, he founded the Belgian section of the International Society for Contemporary Music (ISCM), and has been its chairperson ever since (Bouckaert 2001, 128). Beginning in 1968 he taught new-music techniques at the Koninklijk Conservatorium (Brussels), later being appointed to teach music analysis, theory of musical form, harmony and counterpoint. In 1988 he was appointed Professor of Composition there, and simultaneously became teacher of composition at the Muziekkapel Koningin Elisabeth in Waterloo. From 1979 to 1989 he worked at Belgian Radio and Television (BRT, now VRT), first as a music producer, then as a program coordinator, becoming in 1989 director of production for the BRT Philharmonic Orchestra, and from 1993 until 1996, director of ensembles (Wylin and Diependaele 2008).

Style

Laporte’s earliest compositions, such as the 1954 Piano Sonata, are neoclassical in character but, beginning in the 1960s, his work was increasingly influenced by the Darmstadt avant garde. His style is eclectic, drawing on a range of pitch materials, for example, extending from traditional triads to clusters and microtones, with such contrasting material often alternating within a single piece (Sabbe 1972; Laporte 2003). Though he often employs twelve-tone technique, this is by no means an exclusive concern, and he often quotes music by earlier composers. For example, his opera Das Schloss (1981–85, based on Franz Kafka’s The Castle), quotes from Berg and Wagner, and the orchestral work Nachtmuziek (1970–71) contains citations from Mozart (Sabbe 1986). His Fantasia-Rondino con tema reale for violin and orchestra, composed for the 1989 Queen Elisabeth of Belgium competition, introduces national and royalist symbolism, first by using as tonal centres the notes B, G, and E drawn from the letters of the word "Belgique", second through the use of the Belgian national anthem, and third by the invention for the rondino of a "royal theme" composed of notes drawn from the names of the three most recent royal couples: EliSABetH, ALBErt, LEopolD, AStriD, FABiolA, BouDEwijn (Bouckaert 2001, 128).

Compositions (selective list)

Selected recordings

Sources