Ensemble l'Itinéraire

The Ensemble l’Itinéraire is one of the main European ensembles dedicated to the performance of contemporary music, known in particular for its performances of spectral music works. Spectral music alters “timbres by assembling orchestral masses.”^[1] Based in Paris, the ensemble was founded in January 1973 by Michaël Lévinas, Tristan Murail, Hugues Dufourt, Gérard Grisey and Roger Tessier.^[2] Michael Levinas is the son of the philosopher Emmanuel Levinas.^[3] Many of the composers studied at IRCAM.^[4] Since its creation, it has collaborated with many composers and created hundreds of art pieces.

References

Bibliography

• Badiou, Alain. Logics of Worlds. Trans. Alberto Toscano. London: Continuum, 2009.
• Griffiths, Paul. Modern Music and After: Directions since 1945. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995.
• Malka, Salomon. Emmanuel Levinas: His Life and Legacy. Trans. Michael Kigel & Sonja M. Embree. Pittsburgh: Duquesne University Press, 2006.

Notes

1. Griffiths, p. 249.
2. “… the question of timbre, though it is rigorously tackled by Schönberg (in his theory of the ‘melody of timbres’) and above all by Webern, nevertheless has pre-serial origins, especially in Debussy — in this regard a ‘founding father’ of the same rank as Schönberg. […] Later, it also provided the grounds for the break with Boulez’s ‘structural’ orientations and the contestation of the legacy of serialism which was carried out by the French group L’Itinéraire (Gérard Grisey, Michaël Levinas, Tristan Murail ...).” Badiou, p. 82.
3. Malka, p. 254-270.
4. Griffiths, p. 310.

External links

• Official site
• Ensemble l’Itinéraire on Facebook
• “L’Itinéraire.” Le portail de la musique contemporaine.
• François Nicolas, “L’Itinéraire (1973—…),” Annex III of Les enjeux du concert de musique contemporaine, edited by F. Nicolas (Paris: CDMC).