School of Music Visiting Artist Series
Music: Pascale Criton was born in Paris in 1954. She studied composition with Ivan Wyschnegradsky, Gérard Grisey and Jean-Etienne Marie. She participated in the Darmstädter Ferienkurse in 1980/88, took electro-acoustic training at CIRM (International Centre for Musical Research, Nice) from 1980 to 1982, as well as a musical computing course for composers at IRCAM (Paris) in 1986. Moreover, she is interested in ethnomusicology and took part in activities of the Research Group on Oral Tradition in Abidjan (Ivory Coast) in 1979. She has directed various creative workshops at the University of Paris (1979-81), the Avignon Festival (1977-78) and the Pantin Conservatory (1981-82). In a different capacity, Pascale Criton was a member of the Musical Theatre Company of Les Ulis, with Michel Puig, Michaël Lonsdale, Catherine Dasté and Edith Scob, from 1975 to 1980, and would pursue her stage experience in the framework of productions with Transcenic: dance, theatre, music and audiovisual, with, in particular, Ecrans noirs, first performed in 1982.
In the field of musical research, since 1980, Pascale Criton has explored micro-intervals and their organization, whether it be quarter-, eighth-, twelfth- or sixteenth-tones. Her writing uses scordatura (specific tuning of stringed instruments, guitars and piano), combined with orchestral instruments and digital synthesis. Fascinated by work on the sound continuum, Pascale earned a post-graduate degree under the direction of Hugues Dufourt, doctoral training in Music and Musicology of the 20th Century. Her research resulted in State commissions and lectures on musical aesthetics (‘Introduction to La loi de la Pansonorité by Ivan Wyschnegradsky’, Geneva, 1996), as well as synthesis and new instruments. A consulting composer at IRCAM (Department of Musical Research, 1989-91), she has collaborated with the Waves and Acoustics Laboratory at the School of Physics and Industrial Chemistry in Paris since 1993.
In 1999, the Ensemble 2e2m devoted a portrait concert to Criton, as well as a publication devoted to her work, which was brought out in the ‘à la ligne’ collection (Ensemble 2e2m): Pascale Criton, les univers microtempérés. Her works are published by Jobert and have been played in France as well as abroad: Georges Pompidou Centre, IRCAM, MANCA Festival (Nice), Midem (Cannes), Intermusica, Ars Electronica, Darmstadt, Ijsbreker Institute (Amsterdam), Archipel Festival, 3rd Pianoforum (Heilbronn), the American Festival of Microtonal Music in New York and Radio-France.