Paul Clift (born 21 March 1978) is an Australian composer of contemporary classical music.

Biography

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Born in Melbourne, Australia, Paul Clift began his musical education with studies of piano.[1] Upon graduating with a Bachelor's degree in music composition and linguistics from Monash University, he moved to Paris, where he undertook further study of composition with Franck Bedrossian, Jean-Luc Hervé and Philippe Leroux.[1] In 2006, he moved to London, where he studied with George Benjamin at King's College. The following year, he returned to Paris to participate in the IRCAM Cursus de composition et d'informatique musicale,[2]

Paul Clift

[1] culminating in the premiere at the 2009 Paris Agora Festival[3] of his work With my limbs in the dark[4] for chamber ensemble, electronics and dancer, composed in collaboration with French choreographer Alban Richard.[4] Subsequently, he moved to New York for doctoral studies at Columbia University,[5] where he received further tuition from Fred Lerdahl, Tristan Murail and Fabien Lévy.[1] His doctoral thesis deals with musical temporality and its relationship with memory and perception.[6] While working on his doctorate, he undertook residencies at the Paul Sacher Foundation (Basel) to research alternative temporal/spatial notation systems and at IRCAM to develop the "Acoustic Aggregate Synthesis" system,[7] a "real-time performance tool which fuses synthetic and acoustic sound sources to achieve semi-acoustic resynthesis of a pre-defined acoustic model."[8]

Upon graduation from Columbia University, he moved to Basel, Switzerland, where he currently resides.[9] From 2016 to 2022, he served as Artistic Director of neuverBand[1], a chamber ensemble dedicated to contemporary music. In 2019, his large-scale scenic work "Portal Fantasies," composed in collaboration with cultural historian Barbara Piatti, was premiered at the Zeiträume Biennale für neue Musik und Architektur in Basel.[10] In January 2023, he accepted the post as the Artistic Director of Ensemble Recherche in Freiburg.[11]

His compositions are published by BabelScores,[12] Schweizer Musikedition[13] and the Australian Music Centre.[9]

Selected Works

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  • automation of the personalization process for two oboes, electronics and video (2023)[14]
  • collective imaginary for chamber ensemble, electronics and video (2022)
  • the grammar of shadows for chamber ensemble (2021)
  • turn me on, dead man for soprano, electronics and video (2020)
  • Tombeau de Clément Ader for chamber ensemble and electronics (2020)[15]
  • La Géométrie d'après Descartes for orchestra (2020)
  • the great silence for chamber ensemble (2019)
  • RGBA for saxophone quartet (2019)
  • Portal Fantasies, a musical, architectural and literary promenade for two actors & five musicians (2019)[10]
  • the past is a foreign country, they do things differently there for flute, saxophone and piano (2019)
  • Astatine for saxophone, accordion, cello and electronics (2019)[16]
  • V Prostranem Morju Sanj for flute, violin, piano and a fourth performer (2018)
  • Shadow Art II for flute, voice and electronics (2018)
  • élan vital for flute, clarinet, saxophone and piano (2018)[17]
  • The sea isn't rising, the ground is sinking for soprano, saxophone, piano, percussion and electronics (2017)
  • the more perfect is the more immaterial for chamber ensemble (2016)
  • Radotements avec citation for solo trombone (2016)[18]
  • Objets à réaction poétique for 19 instruments (2015)
  • presence, absence, degree for accordion and electronics (2015)
  • duet/anagram for two saxophones and electronics (2015)
  • Colours are like memories of other colours for string octet and electronics (2014)[19]
  • On the celestial hierarchy for chamber ensemble (2014)[20]
  • qui, dove mezzo son... for flute solo and chamber ensemble (2014)[21]
  • Le détour permet le retour for string quartet, electronics and video (2013)
  • Feuille Volante for solo alto flute (2012)
  • Infinite Regress for 10 instruments (2011)
  • 1950-C for solo guitar (2010)[22]
  • With my limbs in the dark for chamber ensemble, dancer and electronics (2009)[4]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e "Paul Clift". brahms.ircam.fr. Retrieved 2024-05-28.
  2. ^ "Cursus Program on Composition and Computer Music".
  3. ^ "Festival Agora 2009 / Cursus 2 / Alban Richard". Centre Pompidou (in French). Retrieved 2024-05-28.
  4. ^ a b c "With my Limbs in the Dark, Paul Clift". brahms.ircam.fr. Retrieved 2024-05-28.
  5. ^ "Columbia University, Music Department Alumni". https://music.columbia.edu/content/paul-clift. Retrieved 28 May 2024. {{cite web}}: External link in |website= (help)
  6. ^ Clift, Paul David (2017). Salience and Musical Form: On the Composition of 'Objets À Réaction Poétique' for Large Chamber Ensemble (Thesis). Columbia University. doi:10.7916/d8708632.
  7. ^ "Acoustic-Aggregate-Synthesis - Ressources". medias.ircam.fr. Retrieved 2024-05-28.
  8. ^ Paul, Clift; Adrien, Mamou-Mani; René, Caussé (2015). "Extending Brass & Woodwind Instruments with Acoustic-Aggregate-Synthesis". International Computer Music Conference Proceedings. 2015. ISSN 2223-3881.
  9. ^ a b "Paul Clift". neo. Retrieved 2024-05-28.
  10. ^ a b "Alles bloss Fantasie?". basellive.ch (in German). Retrieved 2024-05-28.
  11. ^ "Management". ensemble recherche (in German). Retrieved 2024-05-28.
  12. ^ https://www.babelscores.com
  13. ^ https://musicedition.ch/
  14. ^ oboesmig. "Projekt". Oboes Migrantes (in Spanish). Retrieved 2024-05-28.
  15. ^ "Tombeau de Clément Ader : for clarinet, electric guitar, percussion, violin, viola, cello, contrabass and electronics. by Paul Clift : Work : Australian Music Centre". www.australianmusiccentre.com.au. Retrieved 2024-05-28.
  16. ^ "Astatine : for saxophone, accordion, cello & electronics by Paul Clift : Work : Australian Music Centre". www.australianmusiccentre.com.au. Retrieved 2024-05-28.
  17. ^ "Elan Vital (quartets: flute, clarinet, saxophone, piano) by Paul Clift : Work : Australian Music Centre". www.australianmusiccentre.com.au. Retrieved 2024-05-28.
  18. ^ "radotements avec citation : for solo trombone by Paul Clift : Work : Australian Music Centre". www.australianmusiccentre.com.au. Retrieved 2024-05-28.
  19. ^ "Colours are like memories of other colours (octets: 4 violins, 2 violas, 2 cellos - with live electronics) by Paul Clift : Work : Australian Music Centre". www.australianmusiccentre.com.au. Retrieved 2024-05-28.
  20. ^ "On the celestial hierarchy (septets: keyboard, percussion, string, woodwind) by Paul Clift : Work : Australian Music Centre". www.australianmusiccentre.com.au. Retrieved 2024-05-28.
  21. ^ "qui, dove mezzo son... (flute with chamber ensemble) by Paul Clift : Work : Australian Music Centre". www.australianmusiccentre.com.au. Retrieved 2024-05-28.
  22. ^ "1950-C : guitar solo by Paul Clift : Work : Australian Music Centre". www.australianmusiccentre.com.au. Retrieved 2024-05-28.