FROM: RICHENBERG FAX / March 27, 2012

BY: Julian Anderson

About Denys Bouliane

I have known Denys Bouliane's music since 1986, when I heard his Comme un silène entr’ouvert for
two ensembles and electronics. Since then I have followed his career closely, having heard many live
performances of his music in concerts and festivals of new music in Cologne, Frankfurt, Budapest, London,
Paris, Amsterdam, the United States, Canada and elsewhere, and also on CD. M. Bouliane's music is
constitutes one of the most distinctive and distinguished contributions to musical culture internationally. His
first mature pieces, from 1979-85, were at the forefront in developing features of what became known as the
Postmodernist movement in composed concert music. The principal features included a certain emotional
detachment and a concomitant ironical stance; subtle allusions - but not usually quotations - to music from
many times and traditions; rhythmic and metrical instability, giving the music the aural illusion of progressing
at several speeds simultaneously without landing at any one speed permanently; and a harmonic and melodic
syntax which uses modes invented by the composer which have the ability to give the impression of being in
more than one tone-center at once, again without landing in any one area permanently. These lively features
were at the time quite new to composed music, and over the years aspects of them have influenced others,
notably, at least in my opinion, the later music of Bouliane's teacher, the eminent composer Gyorgy Ligeti
certain of whose later pieces -such as his Piano Concerto (1985-88) - exhibit similar stylistic, aesthetic and
even technical features. The exact technical components and the general aesthetic stance of Bouliane were
quickly noted in Germany (his place of residence throughout the 80s and early 90s) in articles by such
distinguished musicologists as Peter Niklas Wilson.

Unlike many artists who pass through one fashion to the next endlessly, Bouliane has consistently and
steadily developed his independent aesthetic stance and musical vocabulary over the decades since then and in
consequence his output has maintained a highly distinctive stylistic profile internationally - a very rare
achievement these days - without remaining stuck where he was thirty years ago. Furthermore his music has
not dated: key earlier works such as the piano concerto Douze Tiroirs de Demi-Vérites, the orchestral Le
Cactus Rieur, the afore-mentioned Comme un silène, and the ensemble piece A propos… et le Baron perché?
have retained their freshness and relevance in today's cultural climate. As a teacher of composition myself, I
have noted that Bouliane's music retains a fascination amongst the youngest generation of composers and
composition students which is not common. Since the later nineties, his music has also deepened and changed
in unexpected ways, whilst (as stated above) remaining true to his initial premises. Such works as the
extraordinary Piano Concerto No. 1 (composed for famous international pianist Marc-André Hamelin), the
ensemble pieces Des Caresses and Du fouet et du plaisir, his String Quartet and his piano trio Qualia Sui,
have exhibited a broadening of the emotional and temporal palette, with a newly increased lyricism and a
surprising expressive intensity. His current projects include an ambitious operatic venture, which has
intriguing resonances in terms of Canadian cultural history. In short, together with the music of the late Claude
Vivier (the Montreal composer who died young in 1983, and whose music has had such hugely extensive
international impact since then, partly due to Bouliane's own advocacy of it), the music of Denys Bouliane
constitutes Canada's most consistently nationally and internationally distinguished contribution to the field of
art music composition in the past thirty years. He remains a key figure in the music of our time, and looks very
likely to stay in that position.
Since his return to Canada in the mid-nineties, Bouliane has also quickly developed into one of the most
important composition teachers and animateurs of contemporary musical culture internationally. Through his
composition teaching at McGill University's Schulich School of Music, Bouliane has maintained an
extraordinarily high level of both technical accomplishment and aesthetic inventiveness in his students.
Importantly, Bouliane does not breed what one might term 'petits Boulianes' - rather he encourages his
students (even challenges them) to develop their individual compositional and artistic personalities, even (or
especially) if these are contradictory to his own. The results have been impressive and consistent, and he
remains in constant demand nationally and internationally as a composition teacher. Bouliane has also been
key, together with conductor Lorraine Vaillancourt and the eminent Nouvel Ensemble Moderne de Montreal,
in developing the famous annual summer new music courses known as Domaine Forget, one of the key
centers for the study and performance of new music for young composers internationally. Having taught
composition widely myself in the last twenty years (including a spell as Senior Professor at Harvard
University) I can truly say that I have rarely encountered composition teaching on the consistently high level
of Denys Bouliane: many of my own students have flourished on the Domaine Forget summer courses, which
have been a key launching event in their own careers.

In the past fifteen years, Bouliane has also been very active as animateur of other numerous new music
events, concerts, festivals etc. in Canada, which have had international impact. I am particularly thinking of
such festivals as the MusiMarch which he directed for many years with such distinction and success. Here,
typically, Bouliane brought to bear all his vast knowledge of music from many periods, his big international
connections with composers of many contradictory stylistic tendencies such as Louis Andriessen, Magnus
Lindberg, Cornelis de Bondt, Alexander Raskatov, Lasse Thoresen, Philippe Leroux or Kalevi Aho, his strong
abilities as concert planner and programmer. The results were a source of lasting and valuable cultural
excitement both in Canada and elsewhere. It is to be hoped that Bouliane will be able to continue this activity,
even in the currently unfavorable economic climate. Concurrently, Bouliane has also developed new and fine
skills as a conductor of contemporary music. This has enabled Bouliane to add new practical dimensions to his
teaching of composition, and to be of invaluable aid to many young composers in performing their music for
the first time, giving them direct practical insights into the realization of their ideas and guide them in
developing crucial collaborative skills which have stood them in very good stead. His performances have also
included very fine revivals of international new music classics (such as the Ligeti ensemble pieces etc.) which
have helped to train the younger generations of Canadian performing students in the new music literature, as
well as maintain the knowledge of these pieces through live performances (as opposed to recording). All of
this multifarious activity has been a vital feature of the Montreal scene and again has had wide international
resonance as well.

All the above activities, above all Denys Bouliane's consistent internationally eminent achievements as
one of the most distinguished composers of his generation, comprise a highly important national and
international cultural asset for Canada and the music world generally.
There are very few others of his generation who have achieved so consistently and with such originality of
style and technique in art music composition since l980, whilst simultaneously contributing in every way so
very distinctively to Canadian musical culture, and aided its maintaining a high standing in the musical world
as a whole.

Julian Anderson, March 27, 2012

Composer in Residence with the London Philharmonic Orchestra
Professor of Composition and Composer in Residence with the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, London