Éric Humbertclaude is a French musician, organist, contemporary composer, writer and essayist, musicologist, researcher specializing in contemporary music and pipe organ music.
Biography
Born in the Vosges département, Éric Humbertclaude spent his child youth in La Bresse in the same département. He made contact with music as an instrumentalist of the municipal harmony of the commune then was introduced to the pipe organ of the Saint Laurent church. As an adult, he left his native region for Paris. At 21, he became an organist as occasional replacement of Léon Souberbielle at the organ of the choir of the Église de la Trinité, while attending the organ class of André Fleury at the Schola Cantorum de Paris. At the same time, he turned to contemporary music and, since the 1980s, frequented spectral composers such as Tristan Murail, Gérard Grisey and Hugues Dufourt. Interested in contemporary composition, he developed a computer platform to help with composition and wrote several books on musical creation. He wrote the first synthesis on the thought of Pierre Boulez and rediscovered the life and work of the musicographer Pyotr Suvchinsky, 5 October 1892 in St-Petersburg – 24 January 1985 in Paris. Humbertclaude is the author of a work of microhistory about, alchemist and resident engineer of Venice around 1660. In 2013, he returned to his favorite instrument, the organ, for which he was preparing a project to create a new instrument, the 2020 organ, "adapted to modern times". As of 2017, he prepares the edition of the complete works, which he found, of the organist and composer Jean-Claude Touche, killed at a very young age by a German bullet at the end of the Second World War.
Literary style
Christine Labroche describes Éric Humberclaude's style as "sometimes complex or poetically elliptical and of dense prose complicated by the very dense notes provided at the foot of the page, almost a work in itself", and specifies that "it is clearly aimed at a cultured public who holds certain keys in advance and who takes an intellectual pleasure in the relative esotericism but sought out purpose." She notes that "one nevertheless feels in filigree a permanent conviction, a sincerity without fault and a completely refreshing commitment ".
Publications
; Essays on music and creation
Le reflet d'une oreille, in 20eme siècle : images de la musique française : textes et entretiens,, Sacem/Papiers, 1986 ;
Les modèles perceptuels par simulation instrumentale dans les œuvres de Tristan Murail, Dissonance, No 13, Lausanne, 1987 ;
lire Souvtchinski, texts chosen by Eric Humbertclaude, La Bresse : E. Humbertclaude, 1990, 301 p. ;
The Challenge of Tristan Murail's Work, Homestudio, revue Audiolab, Free, 1999 ;
La transcription dans Boulez et Murail : de l’oreille à l’éveil, L’Harmattan, Univers musical, 1999, 98 p. ;
Empreintes : regards sur la création musicale contemporaine, L’Harmattan, Univers musical, 2009, 82 p. ;
La liberté dans la musique , Aedam Musicae, 2012, ;
La musique, les pieds sur terre, Aedam Musicae, 2012 ;
Hugues Dufourt : un univers bruissant, L’Harmattan, Univers musical, 2012, 74 p. ;
La création à vif : musique & corps en éveil, coauthor: Fabienne Gotusso, L'Harmattan, Univers musical, 2013, 102 p. ;
;Collective Essay
Pierre Souvtchinski, cahiers d’étude, under the direction of Éric Humbertclaude. Konrad Walterskirchen, Elena Poldiaeva and Sergei Glebov, L’Harmattan, Univers musical, 2006, 238 p.
;Tales
Federico Gualdi à Venise : Fragments retrouvés : recherches sur un exploitant minier alchimiste, L’Harmattan, 2010, 368 p. ;
Récréations de Hultazob, L’Harmattan, Écritures, 2010, 96 p. ;
;Poetry
Joue, je pense à toi, L’Harmattan, Accent tonique, Poésie, 2011, 60 p. ;
Bascule followed by Vulnus, L’Harmattan, Écritures, 2012, 90 p. ;
