BAYLE François, 1932 – Tamatave.
Born in 1932 in Tamatave, Madagascar where he lived for 14 years. Studies in Bordeaux (1946—54). In 1958-60, François Bayle joined Pierre Schaeffer’s Groupe de Recherches Musicales in Paris, and between 1959-62 worked with Olivier Messiaen and Karlheinz Stockhausen. In 1966, Pierre Schaeffer put him in charge of the GRM which, in 1975, became an integral department of the French National Audiovisual Institute (INA). He maintained this position until 1997.
In addition, it was François Bayle’s idea to create the Acousmonium (1974). He also originated the record series Collection Ina-Grm, organizes concerts and radio broadcasts still supports the development of technologically advanced musical instruments (Syter – Grm tools – Midi Formers – Acousmographe).
In 1993, he founded the Acousmathèque, a repertoire of some 2000 works composed since 1948, and that also organizes symposiums and composers’ portraits.
Upon leaving the Grm in 1997, he created his own studio and the record label Magison.
Bayle’s œuvre is notable for its masterly craftsmanship and rhetoric, its agile discourse and its sophisticated thought.
To date, he has composed 99 works.
Among others : L’Expérience Acoustique (1972), Camera oscura (1976),Tremblement de terre très doux (1978), Son Vitesse-Lumière (1980-83), Fabulae (1990-91), La main vide (1994-95) –Morceaux de ciels (Pieces of heavens) (1996), Jeîta-retour (1985-99), Arc, pour Gérard Grisey (1999), La forme du temps est un cercle (Time’s form is a circle) (1998-2001), La forme de l’esprit est un papillon (The mind’s form is a butterfly) (2001-03), Univers nerveux (2005). – Extra-ordinaire (2005)
Releases
18 monographic CDs (Magison Cycle Bayle 1 to 18).
Books published
Musique acousmatique, propositions… positions – Buchet/Chastel, Paris, 1993.
Parcours d’un compositeur – M. Chion/Musiques et Recherches, Brussels, 1994.
L’image de son / Klangbilder – Imke Misch – Ch. v. Blumröder/Lit Verlag, Münster, 2003.
François Bayle, portrait polychrome – M. de Maule/Ina, Paris, 2004.
Distinctions
SACEM Grand Prize for Composers, 1978 – National Record Grand Prize, 1981 – Ars Electronica Prize, Linz, 1989 City of Paris Grand Prize for Music, 1996 – Homage by the CIME of Sao Paolo, 1997 – Charles Cros Presidential Grand Prize, 1999.