7 questions to Huillet

1) What do you think of contemporary music?

thierry huillet

    I do not “think” about contemporary music.

    Contemporary has only one meaning for me : now !

    A composer is contemporary for as long as he is alive, and he must write the music that he feels deeply.

    His public should be in a position to feel it too, without being told how to.

2) To which movement would you say you belong?

I do not belong to any movement, I simply write my music knowing that I would not be able to do so if others had not done it before me : Bach, Beethoven, Liszt, Prokofiev, Bartok, Scriabin, Bloch, Duke Ellington, Queen…

I hope to appear on someone’s list, one day!

3) Do you write experimental music?

To experiment means to search.

Every creator searches. Thus, what is this so-called experimental music? Wouldn’t it be the experimentation, by the public, of a new musical expression?

I try to show what I find, not what I am looking for… maybe this is experimental music !

4) You are crazy about “Haïku”, aren't you?

I have loved Japan since I was three years old. I had a cubes game which was already my Haïku. This game showed marvelous Japanese scenes; when I observed them, I had the feeling that I had experienced these scenes in a former life. Later on, I discovered that Haiku is the music of my soul.

The Haïku reaches the essence through a simple brief evocation or description; it does not take sides, it does not explain itself. Music has this capacity too.

5) You share your life with Clara : where does she fit in your professional world?

My music is for her.

6) Who is your favourite musician?

From a professional point of view, Rachmaninov : he is the greatest pianist and the most sincere composer of the 20th century.
My heart always skips a beat when I watch the incredibly dense and heartrending few seconds of the film where he raises his hat to Russia for the last time, aboard the ship which is taking him away forever to the United States, his country of exile.

In my heart, however, if I take into account the greatest human qualities, such as generosity, passion, love, energy, curiosity, I would say Schumann. Not just because he also loved his Clara!

I think the best answer is given by Arthur Rubinstein whom I could also have referred to as my “favourite artist” : every artist is unique; he has a universe in himself. It is nonsensical trying to establish a classification. We deeply need the unique touch of each one of them.

7) Which piece of your own work is the closest to your heart? Which would take on a desert island?

Do you have children? Which one of them would you take on your desert island?

Photo Copyright Laura & Lan Nguyen