The composer Charles Chaynes died Friday, June 24, at the age of 90 at his home in Saint-Mande (Val-de-Marne). He was the contemporary of Pierre Boulez (1925-2016). He played a significant role in French musical life by the high office he held for twenty-five years in the national Radio. Music scholar, Charles Chaynes, leaves an abundant catalog of 85 symphonic works according to the count of the SACEM.
Born July 11, 1925 in Toulouse, Charles Chaynes grew up in a family of musicians. His father, Irenaeus, and his mother, Valentine (born Péchamat) both teach at the Conservatory of the "Pink City". Irenaeus plays the violin, and Valentine plays the piano and organ. Trained in violin by his father, Charles was soon able to interpret the main sonatas of the French (Franck, Lekeu, Debussy, and Ravel) with accompaniment of his mother on the piano. At 15, he even adds a piece of his own to his enlightened amateur program.
It is soon time to consider career opportunities with the entrance at the Conservatoire de Paris in October 1943, in harmony with Jean Gallon. Admitted at the same time in the violin class of Gabriel Bouillon, he requests time off a year to focus in the work of writing, proof that he feels like a concert composer. The facts bear him out, at least those noted in pen in the register of students of the Conservatory: first prize for harmony in 1946 but only concertmaster runner-up on the following year, first prize for fugue (in the class Christmas Gallon, after one year of study!) ...
In November 1947, Charles Chaynes resigns from the violin class and in January 1948, incorporates the composition led by Darius Milhaud. Six months later, he won a second prize and began the conquest of the Prix de Rome. Obtaining valuable "visa" for the Villa Medici only at the fourth attempt, in 1951, and Charles Chaynes enjoy the benefits of the "Eternal City" from 1952 to 1955.
A year after his return from Italy, he made his debut with producer National Broadcasting. As Henri Dutilleux (1916-2013) spent twenty years in the recording studio to supervise the music of his peers, Charles Chaynes perceive the specificity of radio tool and the need for composers to take this in account in the design of their works.
Passionately committed to the radio service, Charles Chaynes directs antenna Music France, from 1965 to 1975, and the service of musical creation at Radio France, from 1975 to 1990, including that of a violin concerto by Henri Dutilleux. Mady Mesplé for Four poems of Sappho of 1968 for soprano and string trio draws a sustainable furrow in the catalog of Charles Chaynes, including its important scenic partitions (of Erzsebet, created in Paris Opera in 1983 Mi amor, created in Metz in 2007).
His Concerto Time Regained (1958) for violin, of course, announced the color, vivid, contrasting accents of Béla Bartok and Alban Berg. Her Faces Mycenaean (1983) confirms a taste of plasticity in the offspring of Edgar Varèse. Among the many accolades, his election in 2005 to the Academy of Fine Arts was more meaningful. Under the Dome, the chair VIII of Section V (musical composition) is now vacant.
Important Dates in the life of Charles Chaynes:
July 1925 - Born in Toulouse.
1965 - Director of Music France.
1968 - Four poems by Sappho.
1975 - Head of creating music for Radio France.
2007 - Mi amor.
June 2016 - Died in Saint-Mande.
Photo credit to (http://www.musimem.com/chaynes.htm).