Gérard Grisey

Gérard Grisey (1946-1998) was a French composer, born in Belfort. He studied in Trossingen, then at the Paris Conservatoire with Olivier Messiaen, and also worked with Henri Dutilleux. In 1973 he co-founded the ensemble L'Itinéraire, and he is regarded as one of the founders of spectral music, building harmony and form from the acoustic spectrum of sound. He died suddenly in Paris in 1998. Grisey attended the Darmstadt courses in 1972 (Stockhausen, Ligeti, Xenakis) and lived at the Villa Medici in Rome from 1972 to 1974 after winning the Prix de Rome.