A French composer born January 3, 1980 in Hennebont.
Pierre-Yves Macé studied the piano and percussion at the Conservatory of Rennes while initiating himself in music composition. The holder of a master’s degree in Modern Letters, he presented in 2009, at the University of Paris VIII, a doctoral thesis in musicology that was a study of sound documents since the beginnings of sound recording.
Composing at the intersection of electroacoustic music, contemporary composition and the art of sound, stimulated by the work of John Zorn and Alvin Curran, Macé places the recorded sound, the sound document and archive at the heart of his music, using techniques of recycling and of quotation. Attracted to multidisciplinarity, he collaborates with the duet of visual artistes Hippolyte Hentgen, with the writers Mathieu Larnaudie, Philippe Vasset, Pierre Senges, Julien d’Abrigeon, and has written music for shows of Sylvain Creuzevault, Christophe Fiat, Joris Lacoste, Anne Collod, Fabrice Ramalingom, Marinette Dozeville, Marianne Baillot and Louis-Do de Lencquesaing. He also regularly takes part in the activities of the collective L’Encyclopédie de la Parole.
Pierre-Yves Macé composes electroacoustic music, mixed music and both instrumental and vocal music for formations ranging from solo instrument to chamber orchestra. His works include Passagenweg for computer, two turntables and eight loudspeakers, commissioned by the GRM for the electronic festival Présences (2010); Song recital for voice and instrumental ensemble, commissioned by the Festival d’Automne in Paris, first performed by Natalie Raybould and L’Instant Donné (2012); Je vais entendre encore une phrase de Sole Mio for male voice, flute, clarinet, guitar, viola, cello and electronics, commissioned and first performed by the Ensemble Cairn (2016); Jardins Partagés III, cantata for chamber orchestra, vocal ensemble and recording, co-commissioned and first performed by the Orchestre de Chambre de Paris and Les Cris de Paris (2017); Rumorarium for ensemble and memorised sounds, commissioned and first performed by the Ensemble Intercontemporain (2018); Five Dolly Shots for biniou, Scottish bagpipes, bombard and trélombarde, commissioned by Radio France for the programme Création Mondiale (2018); Song Recycle, cycle of works for piano and tape begun in 2010.
Equally a writer on music, Macé has written for the revues Mouvement, Accents, Labyrinthe, La Nouvelle Revue d’esthéticqe; in 2012 he published with Presses du Réel Musique et document sonore, a work based on his thesis research.
