Acanthes has been pursuing its educational mission for more than a quarter of a century; this year from 11 to 25 July the Chartreuse of Villeneuve-lez-Avignon will again play host to young composers coming to enrich their knowledge and experience of musical creation.

The Centre Acanthes revolves around composition and interpretation workshops. Here young composers are given the opportunity to hear how their works sound in full-scale performances, and interpreters to develop the techniques involved in playing contemporary music.

This year the Centre has invited three guest composers of international renown, who will work with the different workshops and will also speak about their own works. They are Klaus Huber from Switzerland (who taught at Acanthes in 1993), Gilbert Amy from France (at Acanthes in 1984) and Toshio Hosokawa from Japan. The instrumental workshops will benefit from the teaching of the pianist Claude Hellfer, who will also teach analysis, the flautist Mario Caroli, the cellist Walter Grimmer, and the accordionist Teodoro Anzellotti.

Finally, the presence for the first time at Acanthes of Toshio Hosokawa provides the inspiration for a Japanese theme to this year’s Centre. There will be opportunities to explore traditional Japanese music, with examples, and also to examine the combination of modernity and a rediscovery of traditional sonorities which typifies music in most Asian countries today.

• Opera: the challenges of a “musicalised” diction / prosody and rhetoric: from Une Saison en Enfer to Premier Cercle / Is the “aria” still a possibility? / the role of repetition and da capo / heterogeneous elements (melodies, ensembles, instruments, etc.)

– reference works: Le Premier Cercle (1996-1999), Une saison en Enfer (1980)

• The orchestra: is the orchestra evolving or moving backwards? / is there any point to orchestration? / the idea of space / masses and individuals / the role of bases

– reference works: Orchestrahl (1985-89), Trois Scènes (1995), Concerto de violoncelle (1999-2000)

• Musical language and instrumental writing: the organ. From Sept Bagatelles to Trois Inventions

– reference work: Trois Inventions

• Ludwig van Beethoven: 31st Sonata for piano, op. 110

• Ferruccio Busoni: Sonatina Seconda

• Claude Debussy: Quatre Etudes for piano

• Béla Bartók: Sonata for piano (1926)

• Gilbert Amy: Epigrammes, for piano

• Traditional Japonese music : Gagaku, Shômyô, Nô

• Orchestral music : Voice from the ocean, Silent sea

• Choral music : Singing Trees, Voiceless Voice in Hiroshima

• Lamentationes Sacrae et Profanae ad Responsoria Gesualdi

• Ecce homines, for string quintet

• A l’âme de descendre de sa monture, for cello, baritone, countertenor and thirty-seven instruments

• Black Plaint, for shô and percussion

These workshops are designed for composers wishing to present a new instrumental work and follow the practise sessions needed to study the work, at the same time benefiting from the experience and advice of members of Acanthes’ teaching corps.

These instrument sessions, preceded by a “round-table” analysis, will give participants the opportunity of reviewing the details of their composition through close and constant listening.

Instruments available for this workshop are: 1 flute (piccolo, alto flute), 1 oboe (cor anglais), 1 clarinet (bass clarinet), 1 bassoon, 1 saxophone, 1 horn, 2 percussionists (1 vibraphone, 1 marimba, 1 glockenspiel, 1 set of crotales (1 octave), 1 set of tubular bells (1 and a half octaves), 4 toms, 2 bongos, 2 tumbas, 1 tam-tam, 1 symphonic bass drum, 3 suspended cymbals), 1 piano, 1 celesta, 1 harp, 2 violins, 1 viola, 1 cello, 1 double bass.

Composers can choose all or some of the instruments (minimum eight instruments).

Length of the work: from four to eight minutes maximum.

Possible combinations of performers for this workshop:

a) two sopranos, countertenor, two tenors, baritone and guitar-theorbo
b) two sopranos, countertenor and tenor
c) tenor, baritone and guitar-theorbo
d) two sopranos and guitar-theorbo
e) countertenor, two tenors and baritone
f) two sopranos, countertenor and guitar-theorbo
g) two tenors and baritone
h) soprano, countertenor, tenor and guitar-theorbo
i) soprano, tenor and baritone

Composers choosing a combination with an instrument a, c, d, f and h, may also:

- add a second instrument: flute, cello, or accordion

- replace the theorbo with another instrument: flute cello or accordion.

Length of the work: from three to seven minutes maximum.

1/ Composers must send their application form before 25 March together with one or two completed works, not necessarily written for the selection of instruments above. Scores can be sent with a recording.

Successful composers will be informed from 7 April onwards.

2/ Successful composers will be asked to send a written work (separate legible and good quality scores for conductor and each part, in duplicate) by 20 June for the Vocal Polyphony workshop and 10 June for the instrumental ensemble workshop, together with programme notes and a short biography (maximum ten lines, in French or English).

A selection of the scores studied will be presented during the students’ concerts on 24 and 25 July. All works will be rehearsed in detail and composers will be given a CD recording of their work.

Composers who are not selected will be accepted as auditing students and can follow the composition workshop sessions and other activities at Acanthes.

The management of Acanthes, together with the heads of the composition workshops, reserves the right to reject a score that it feels could not realistically be performed.

Teodoro Anzellotti, accordion
Mario Caroli, flute
Walter Grimmer, cello
Claude Helffer, piano

Instrumentalists are asked to suggest a programme on their application forms mainly comprising the works of the guest composers together with other contemporary works.

They should prepare these works thoroughly before the summer school.

Acanthes 2006 -> - -

Acanthes 2003 - teaching team - concerts - practical informations - suggested works for instrumental workshops - paticipants 2003 - application form - partnership