Pierre Mercure, Gilles Tremblay and some other Canadian composers at Darmstadt’s Ferienkurse in the 1950s and 1960s
During the 1950s and 1960s, critical decades in the history of contemporary music, a number of Canadian composers attended the renowned contemporary music summer courses at Darmstadt, Germany (the Internationale Ferienkurse für Neue Musik), including Barbara Pentland, Gilles Tremblay, Norma Beecroft, Bruce Mather and Pierre Mercure. These lectures, concerts, discussions and meetings would have a major impact on their respective careers. For instance, Bengt Hambraeus, originally from Sweden, helped spur the rise of integral serialism, rubbing shoulders with Maderna and Nono. At Darmstadt, Pentland discovered the music of Webern while Beecroft, Tremblay and Mather were influenced by hearing works and lectures by Boulez and Stockhausen. Works by Hambraeus, Beecroft and Tremblay were performed. Mercure, meanwhile, attended Pierre Boulez’s courses in analysis, composing his last work (based on improvisation) and prepared the creation of the future Société de musique contemporaine du Québec.