At the École nationale de musique du Pays de Montbéliard, computers stand alongside pianos, harpsichords and violins. Purists of “classical” music teaching are not offended. Jacopo Baboni Schilingi and Hans Tutschku are both inseparable and complementary. Since 1999 they have divided their time between the United States, Mexico, European capitals and Montbéliard, where they teach composition and electroacoustic music. Everyone can hear their creations in ENM concerts throughout the Pays de Montbéliard.
The former is a thirty-one-year-old Milanese with scientific and musical training. He uses computers to write his scores, composes across Europe and has won several international prizes. He publishes numerous articles and books with enigmatic titles: Systèmes génératifs en Musique, Structures et systèmes and Hypertexte et hypermédia. He collaborates with leading music research centres such as IRCAM, the renowned Institute for Research and Coordination in Acoustics/Music, and teaches composition and computer music at various institutions. His music is regularly performed at international festivals.
His counterpart, thirty-six-year-old German Hans Tutschku, studied piano, played synthesizer and controls electronics in real time. He is more of a meticulous dissector of sound. His path crossed the celebrated Stockhausen’s through concerts. He studied electroacoustics in The Hague and at IRCAM, where he met Baboni Schilingi. He too performs internationally, composing film, theatre and ballet music as well as instrumental and electroacoustic pieces. At ENM, “the electroacoustic composition class offers students a creative approach to the world of sound. Our first instrument is the microphone,” he says.
Together, they explore every facet of sound, combining computing with traditional instruments. This places the Pays de Montbéliard at the forefront. “In Paris they are rather wondering what is happening in Montbéliard,” Baboni Schilingi jokes. “By bringing us here, Jacques Clos, ENM’s director, took a gamble: could we establish a composition class in Montbéliard? The first year, 1999, we had four students. Today there are thirty-two, some from Italy, Spain, Belgium and Venezuela. An artist from San Francisco even moved to Montbéliard.” Their Parisian students follow them to the City of the Dukes of Württemberg.
The pair are experts, equally comfortable with paper scores and computer mice. “Previously there was the computer specialist and the musician. We wear both hats! Electronic music composition emerged in the 1970s. Today it has become commonplace through film music on DVDs and CD-ROMs.” Who knew, for instance, that a Victor Hugo documentary broadcast on Arte on 13 December featured music composed at the École nationale de musique du Pays de Montbéliard?
Kamel Ayeb
Caption: Hans Tutschku, left, and Jacopo Baboni Schilingi, two sound experts and renowned musicians.
Note: Pianist Ketty Nez is artist in residence until June and has collaborated with CICV Pierre Schaeffer on visual and musical software.
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