3 - “To push my language further” (1971–72)

Summary

For a young Canadian composer at the beginning of the 1970s, the decision to study in Europe was not uncommon. In Vivier’s case, had encouragement been needed, it would have come amply from Gilles Tremblay, who had himself as a younger man studied in Europe for a period of seven years. Study in Europe was more than simply a “finishing school”: in the eyes of an important minority in Quebec it was a passport toward an international career and a crucial step away from parochialism. Relatively few of Vivier’s fellow students at the Conservatoire followed suit—Michel-Georges Brégent and Walter Boudreau, for example, were too committed to their bands and their various other musical activities to think of leaving Quebec at this point—but quite a few of them came to Europe in the summers, and occasionally for longer periods. During the three years he would spend in Europe, Vivier would see various Montreal friends from time to time and even make the acquaintance of people who would remain friends back home, such as the Spanish-born José Evangelista.

For Quebec composers, however, the destination of choice had overwhelmingly been France. The two most prominent figures of the Montrealbased musical avant-garde, Tremblay and Garant, had both spent important years in Paris; Vivier’s decision to study in Germany was unusual. The first address we have for him in Europe, on a document dated June 20, 1971, is on Stürzelberger Weg in Köln-Worringen, the most northern part of Cologne. The fact that the document in question is his registration form for study at the Institute of Sonology in the Netherlands, however, is significant. He had come to Cologne in May in hopes of studying with Stockhausen, then newly appointed as a professor at the Hochschule there, but was, at first, refused. Clarence Barlow, who also applied that summer, tells the story:

Stockhausen I know took offense at his looks and his smell—Claude had this sheepskin coat which exuded a certain sheep odor—and maybe his way of talking, which had a certain namby-pamby quality. Stockhausen gave us a job to do—we were supposed to write something based on the formula from his Mantra; each one of us got a photocopy of the formula. So we all sat around this table—we had two or maybe three hours to write a piece.