François-Bernard Mâche

Born into a family of musicians, he is a former student of Émile Passani and Olivier Messiaen and has also received a diploma in Greek archaeology (1957) and a teaching certificate (Agrégation de Lettres classiques, 1958).

[1] Mâche's Music, Myth and Nature, or The Dolphins of Arion (Musique, mythe, nature, ou les Dauphins d'Arion) (1983, 1992 ISBN 3-7186-5321-4), which as a whole argues for a return in composition to mythic thought, includes a study of "ornitho-musicology" using a technique of Nicolas Ruwet's Langage, musique, poésie (1972) paradigmatic segmentation analysis, shows that birdsongs are organized according to a repetition-transformation principle.

[2] The book also describes the conception and composition of pieces by Mâche, where, "As a starting point, he borrows a tonal model from reality which he then submits to a highly intricate process leading to abstraction."

Recordings of birdsong, insect sounds, and other natural phenomena such as raindrops are integrated into Le printemps du serpent for large percussion ensemble of 2001.

Other major works include Kassandra for large ensemble and tape, which won the Italia Prize in 1977; Eridan (1986)[2] and Moires (1994), both written for the Arditti Quartet; Kengir (1991), settings of ancient Sumerian love poems, and Manuel de résurrection (1998), setting texts from the Egyptian Book of the Dead, both written for the soprano Françoise Kubler and Ensemble "Accroche Note".