Boulez and the Founding of Ircam 4/4: Meeting with Gerald Bennett
Born in New Jersey (United States) in 1942, composer Gerald Bennett studied music at Harvard University. After graduating in 1964, he continued his studies in Switzerland at the Basel Conservatory. He was appointed professor in 1967 and director two years later. Approached by Pierre Boulez in 1971 to take part in the development of IRCAM, he left his post in 1976 to head the institute's Diagonal department until 1980.
Gerald Bennett is the 32nd person interviewed as part of the RAMHO project. This interview took place on November 22, 2023, at the composer's home in Muttenz in the canton of Basel.
FXF – I understand that you attended Pierre Boulez's classes at Harvard between March and June 1963.
GB – Yes, that was during the second semester of the 1962–63 academic year.
FXF – Did you know who Pierre Boulez was?
GB – Not at all! I just knew that he had been invited to give the same series of lectures that [Igor] Stravinsky, among others, had given before him. But he also gave classes on the analysis of important 20th-century works; he discussed Webern, Stravinsky, Varèse... These were great discoveries for me. I was absolutely fascinated.
FXF – Apart from your brief experience with the Philips Pavilion [in 1958 during a trip to Europe], you weren't particularly knowledgeable about contemporary music?
GB – No, not at all.
FXF – Was it with Boulez that you made your debut in the world of contemporary music, or did your composition teacher, Robert Moevs, give you a leg up?
GB – Moevs had studied with Nadia Boulanger. He had spent many years in Paris and was published by Max Eschig. It was very, very contemporary music at the time. Surprisingly contemporary for an American because, at the time, there weren't many people writing like that. So I wasn't completely new to it, but my thoughts and ideas were really stuck in the past. The analysis classes were absolutely mind-blowing for me. Mind-blowing! But the event that affected me the most was the concert featuring Boulez's works.
FXF – What ensemble was capable of playing Boulez at that time?
GB – They were pickup musicians from New York who played well. You know, I wouldn't say I was skeptical, but as you can imagine, Boulez's analysis classes were really complex, and I was very sensitive to reality, to the acoustic rendering. I didn't know his music and I wanted to know if he was someone who could hear or not [laughter].
FXF – You discovered that he could hear well.
GB – Yes!
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FXF – 1964–65 was your first year in Basel. Did you know that Boulez would be back to teach summer classes in 1965?
GB – No.
FXF – You attended these summer courses as an auditor. According to the dates I found on your CV at the Sacher Foundation, they took place between June 21 and July 10, 1965. They were courses in contemporary music interpretation and conducting. Were there any composition classes?
GB – No, not at all. It was amazing because we had the full Basel orchestra. Only Sacher could have pulled that off! For two weeks, we attended every rehearsal, morning and evening, for a total of six hours a day. In the afternoons, Boulez gave theory classes on the pieces that were being played or on music in general.
FXF – Did the students work with the orchestra?
GB – I didn't conduct the orchestra, but I worked on the scores before attending the rehearsals. It was during those two weeks that I really came into contact with contemporary music: six hours a day listening to the great scores of Berg, Webern, Varèse...
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FXF – In letters written in June 1971, Boulez first mentioned an acoustic research center to you, and in October 1971, you met in Basel to discuss it. Do you remember what he said to you, how he brought you into the project?
GB – It was very understated and succinct. He asked me to participate in this new center in Paris.
FXF – An acoustic research center [CRA], as he called it at the beginning.
GB – Yes, but at the very beginning, it was just a question of a corner in the Pompidou Center where people could listen to recordings. A corner where you could learn a little about contemporary music.
FXF – Boulez never wanted that.
GB – No.
FXF – When he first presented the project to you, was that how he described it?
GB – He didn't talk to me about it much because he knew I would do everything [laughs]. He knew that all he had to do was ask me and I would be there.
FXF – You seem to be one of the very first people to have been approached by Boulez to develop this center, apart from Yves Galmot for administration and, very quickly, Nicholas Snowman and Brigitte Marger.
GB – Brigitte was in London.
FXF – Yes. Brigitte explained to me that he had told her about the project in London but hadn't asked her to take part.
GB – He didn't talk to me about it much, but I was very excited about the possibility of working with him, of being somewhere else. Politically, he knew what he wanted, but otherwise no one knew what we were going to do; we had no idea, including me. Jean-Claude [Risset] was the only one who could come up with ideas.
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GB – When I arrived, there weren't many people there. There was Jean-Pierre Armand, Nicholas [Snowman], Brigitte [Marger], [Yves] Galmot, from time to time, but he didn't spend much time with us.
FXF – Jean-Claude [Risset] was there.
GB – Yes. He was upstairs, on the second floor [of a former public library], like me. You're asking me about things I've forgotten... It wasn't very practical; it was noisy and dusty.
FXF – The construction site was right below you. It must have been very noisy!
GB – It didn't bother me. I have to say, I don't remember any of that anymore.
FXF – The PDP-10 computer was installed in that library. Do you remember where it was located?
GB – That's a good question. No, I don't remember. I do remember the first sound we made with it. It was the sound of a cork [GB clicks his tongue to imitate the sound of a champagne cork].
FXF – Who programmed that sound? Jean-Claude?
GB – No. It was someone from Stanford, a programmer, maybe Brian Harvey. I don't remember exactly.
FXF – It must have taken several months before you could produce your first sound.
GB – It took almost a year, if I remember correctly, to get the digital-to-analog converters and be able to output sound from the computer. I thought I was there when the PDP-10 arrived, but apparently not, because in 1975 I wasn't living in Paris yet.
By François-Xavier Féron, CNRS researcher in the Analysis of Musical Practices team in the STMS laboratory (IRCAM, Sorbonne University, CNRS, Ministry of Culture)
Quote: Gerald Bennett – Interview with François-Xavier Féron, November 22, 2023, RAMHO project (Musical Research and Acoustics in France: An Oral History), STMS – IRCAM, unpublished.
Photo 1: Gerald Bennett and Pierre Boulez at Ircam's first press conference, March 7, 1974, Théâtre de la Ville, Paris © Photo: Martine Franck
Photo 2: Gerald Bennett
