French composer Bernard Parmegiani has died last on November 21, aged 85. He is considered being one of the fathers of electro-acoustic music and belonged to the Research Group of the French National Institute for Audiovisual Media, INA. He composed film mjusic, stage music and ballet music.
After his studies with Jacques Lecoq, he was first a sound engineer and was later in charge of the Music/Image unit for French television (ORTF).
He composed his first major work, ‘Violostries’ for violin and tape in 1964. During a visit to America in the late 1960s, he researched the link between music and video and on his return produced several musical videos, including ‘L’Œil écoute’, and ‘L’Écran transparent’ (1973) during a residency at Westdeutscher Rundfunk in Germany. In the 1970s he also became involved with live performances of jazz.
He wrote also acousmatic pieces for performance in the concert hall: examples are ‘Capture éphémère’ of 1967 which deals with the passage of time, and ‘L’Enfer’ (1972), a collaboration with the composer François Bayle, based on Dante’s Divine Comedy.
