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NAEGELEN Karl (1979)

Date of creation:

February 2014

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A French composer born May 20, 1979 in Bourg-en-Bresse.

A saxophonist and guitarist by training, Karl Naegelen is interested in all kinds of music, from jazz to rock, from classical to contemporary music. He studied at the Lyons Conservatory, notably with Robert Pascal and Denis Lorrain, as well as at the Musikhochschule of Hamburg.

Passionately fond of improvisation and extra-European music, he has made several trips to Surakarta in Indonesia seeking to conserve, in his own style, the smoothness and spontaneity characteristic of music in oral traditions through a constant quest for qualities of sound and tone-colour.

He has composed for various stage forms (Microméga, a miniature opera, 2013; Alice in Wonder, a choreographic show, 2007) and invented a new musical and theatrical form (Une saison en enfer, 2010). He works in collaboration with his performers, be they seasoned professional like Wilhem Latchoumia (Piano Guiro, 2011) or amateurs like the Arioso chorus (Iss, 2008) or indeed children (La voix du Dalang, 2010; L’épopée du vent, 2012), and he takes part in various pedagogical projects. His works are played in France (festivals such as Musica, Musique-action, etc.) and abroad (Germany, USA, Japan, etc.).

Biography

Karl Naegelen was born in 1979 in Bourg-en-Bresse. As a child he developed an interest in the relationship with sound, notably on a audio cassette player, listening to the noise of the cassette, the way in which it stops… A saxophonist and guitarist, he discovered various types of traditional music, jazz, rock, but also classical music, Johannes Brahms in particular. In the contemporary domain he was overwhelmed when listening to Xenakis’s Jonchaies and to Ligeti’s Kammerkonzert. He studied composition at the Lyons Regional Conservatory and then the municipal Lyons Conservatory. He attended the classes of Robert Pascal, Denis Lorrain and François Roux and completed his training at the Musikhochschule in Hamburg with Peter Hamel. He also took part in many masterclasses, notably in Berlin with Georges Aperghis, and in 2006 was a laureate of a bursary from the Fondation Salabert.

Naegelen made several trips to Surakarta on the island of Java in Indonesia, discovering its traditional music and taking lessons in the gamelan. Passionately fond of improvisation and extra-European music, he notably sought to conserve in his style the smoothness and spontaneity that are characteristic of music in oral traditions through a constant quest for qualities of sound and tone-colour.

In his relationships with performers Karl Naegelen favours long-term exchanges. Through his show Kenal-Kenalen (2011), with the percussionists Ying-Hui Wang and Benoît Poly and the Sol Y Tu company, he introduced Indonesian culture, albeit far removed from the cliches common in the West. The dancers Ank Afdhal Palmer Johana Lemarchand were thus able to reveal ‘an other Indonesia’, a matriarchal society strongly influenced by Islam in which dance and music play a predominant role. Naegelen also regularly collaborated with the pianist Wilhem Latchoumia, first performer of Piano guiro (2011) at the Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord in Paris and of the Études fantômes (2006) during the International Piano Competition of Orléans. In 2010, for the improvising duet Eve Risser and Joris Rühl he wrote Fenêtre Ovale, a state commission, premiered at the Consortium in Dijon: the ‘fenestra vestibuli’ (oval window), a membrane that marks the limit of the middle and inner ears, is the exact place of the transition between acoustics and psycho-acoustics, between the physical nature of the sound wave and its subjective perception, the border between the mechanical and the imaginary. This is where the composer seeks new sonorities and reaches aural illusion by creating a disconnection between the instrumental cause and the acoustic effect.

Karl Naegelen is also interested in stage projects (Microméga, a miniature opera based on an early composition of Prokofiev, 2013) and he has worked notably with the choreographer Johanna Lemarchand (Alice in wonder, 2007), the scenographer Adèle Ogier and the juggler Martin Schwietzcke (Un nuage sur la terre, sensorial show for very young children). With the company Oblio-di me, he invented a musical and theatrical form based on Arthur Rimbaud’s Une saison en enfer, by confronting the actor’s vision of the poet’s text with that of the musician.

Devoting himself to various pedagogical projects (‘Chantiers de la création’ with the Orchestre National de Lyon), he has written for children (La voix du Dalang with the Orchestre National de Lille, 2010; L’épopée du vent, 2012) and amateur choruses (Iss, 2008, for the Arioso chorus of Is-sur-Tille). He has been on numerous composer residencies, notably at the regional conservatories of Annecy and Chambéry (2010-2014).

Naegelen has composed for the Orchestre National de Lyon, the Orchestre National de Lille, the ensemble Résonance Contemporaine, the Béla Quartet (Présages, 2008), the Pli Quartet, the ensemble Linea (N.Y.C., 2006) and others.
His premieres have taken place in many festivals in France and abroad: Musica in Strasburg, Encuentros in Buenos Aires, Musique-action in Vandœuvre-lès-Nancy, the international piano festivals of Girona and Orléans, as well as in Hamburg, Berlin, the USA and Japan.

Works

Les partitions de Karl Naegelen sont inédites.

2005
Prélude pour toy piano
2 min 30 s
Création : 2005 – Wilhem Latchoumia. France, Lyon, Musée des Beaux-arts

2006
Kyoku pour une soprano s’accompagnant aux percussions
7 min 30 s
Création : 2006 – Mélody Louledjian. France, Lyon, CNSMD

Nostalgia pour harpe et bande
9 min 30 s
Création : 2006 – Seiko Fukushima. France, Lyon, CNSMD

N.Y.C. pour percussion et ensemble instrumental
11 min
Création : 13/10/2007 – Michael Pattmann, ensemble Linea, direction Jean-Philippe Wurtz. France, Strasbourg, festival Musica

Trois études fantômes pour piano
7 min
Création : 02/2006 – Wilhem Latchoumia. Concours international de Piano d’Orléans

2007
Homo Facere pour 6 voix de femmes, flûte piccolo et 2 percussions
8 min 20 s
Création : 09/06/2007. France, Le Bourget-du-lac, prieuré, Festival des voix du prieuré

Matière en mouvement pour 6 voix solistes et quatuor à cordes
12 min
Création : 16/05/2007 – L’Ensemble des 6 voix solistes, direction Alain Goudard, quatuor Pli. France, Vandœuvre-lès-Nancy, festival Musique-Action

2008
Présages pour chœur mixte, voix d’enfants, quintette à cordes et percussions
10 min 40 s
Création : 07/2008 – Chœur 20-21, Chœur Vocal’am, Quatuor Béla. France, église de Pont-de-Beauvoisin, festival Nuits d’été

Scherzo fantôme, trio pour clarinette, violoncelle, piano et piano toy (rév. 2011)
15 min
Création : 07/03/2008 – Trio Kaïros. France, Clermont-Ferrand, CNR, auditorium Chabrier

2009
Jamais déjà donné pour harpe et violon
13 min 30 s
Création : 2009 – Duo Bergamasque. France, festival de Gargilesse

La plainte du ney pour saxophone soprano
9 min
Création : 2011 – Fabrizio Mancuso. France, Annecy, festival Sons d’automne

2010
Quintette pour piano, percussion, deux trompettes et cor
9 min
Création : 08/2010 – Musiciens de l’académie Opus XXI. France, chartreuse de Villeneuve-lèz-Avignon

2011
Bhopak pour guitare jouée par un percussionniste
2 min 20 s
Création : 12/2011 – Benoît Poly, Yin Hui Wang. Suisse, Genève, festival Eklekto
[Il existe également une version avec, en plus, un joueur de zarb.]

Fenêtre ovale pour duo d’improvisateurs (voix, flûte, clarinette et piano préparé)
37 min
Création : 19/06/2011 – Joris Ruhl, Eve Risser. France, Chambéry, Cité des arts

Kedua pour 2 percussionnistes
9 min
Création : 12/2011 – Benoît Poly, Yin Hui Wang. Suisse, Genève, CIP, Festival Eklekto

Piano guiro pour piano préparé
7 min
Création : 24/09/2011 – Wilhem Latchoumia. France, Abbaye de Royaumont

Quatuor à cordes no 2
16 min
Création : 24/11/2011 – Quatuor Béla. France, Annecy, Musée-Château

Rumeurs pour percussionniste solo
3 min 30 s
Création : 09/08/2011 – Yi-Ping Yang. Taïwan, Taïpei, KHS Hall

2012
La boîte à frissons pour 8 musiciens minimum (instrumentarium ad lib.)
Création : 05/2012 – étudiants du collège George Sand de La Motte Servolex. France, Le Bourget-du-lac, Académie des voix du Prieuré

Children’s folk songs pour soprano, harpe, percussions, alto, violoncelle, clarinette et flûte
10 min
Création : 11/2012 – Rula Safar, ensemble Pléiades, direction Jean-Paul Odiau. France, Annecy, festival Sons d’Automne

Entropies pour trio à cordes, piano, harpe, flûte et bande
11 min 50 s
Création : 13/03/2012 – Ensemble Actem. France, Lyon, amphithéâtre, biennale Musiques en scène

2013
Laïka pour 2 pianos
40 s
Création : 05/2013 – Duo Reynaldo. France, Conservatoire de Montreuil

Labyrinthe pour orchestre et double quintette de jazz
14 min
Création : 27/11/2013 – Orchestre et double quintette de jazz des CRR des Pays de Savoie, direction Benoît Bessé. France, Annecy, auditorium de Seynod

Rough Edge pour harpe et violoncelle
7 min
[Œuvre non créée]

Vanités pour piano, contrebasse, saxophone et flûte
8 min
Création : 04/2013 – Claudine Simon, Violaine Launay, Jean-Michel Pirollet, Jean-Philippe Grometto. France, Chambéry, Cité des arts

2014
8 miniatures pour alto
6 min 30s
Création : 03/2014 – Julian Boutin. France, Albi, Festival des journées électriques

Les villes endormies pour ensemble et chœur d’enfants
15 min
Création : 05/2014 – Hermès ensemble, chœur d’enfants de la communauté d’Ixelles. Belgique, Bruxelles, Flagey

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Mezzo-TV (Portrait vidéo du compositeur)

Portrait radiophonique de Karl Naegelen par Arnaud Merlin (France musique, Le portrait contemporain, 3 janvier 2018)

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NAEGELEN Karl (1979)

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NAEGELEN Karl (1979)

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