Serge Nigg

Serge Nigg (6 June 1924 – 12 November 2008) was a French composer, born in Paris.

Biography After initial studies with Ginette Martenot, Nigg entered the Paris Conservatory in 1941 and studied harmony with Olivier Messiaen and counterpoint with Simone Plé-Caussade. In 1945, he met René Leibowitz, who introduced him to the twelve-tone technique of composition. Together with other Leibowitz pupils, Antoine Duhamel, André Casanova and Jean Prodromidès, he gave the first performance of Leibowitz's Explications des Metaphors, Op. 15, in Paris in 1948. After completing a Concerto for Piano and Wind Instruments and a Concerto for Piano and String Orchestra (both 1943), and the symphonic poem Timour (1944), he became the first French composer to write a dodecaphonic work when his Variations for Piano and 10 Instruments appeared in 1946. This piece was premiered at the International Festival of Dodecaphonic Music, organized by Leibowitz in 1947.

In 1956, Nigg was appointed a member of the Music Committee for French state broadcasting. From 1967 to 1982, he was a member of the music management for the French Ministry of Culture, after which he taught classes in instrumentation and orchestration at the Paris Conservatory, and became President of the Société Nationale de Musique. He was elected to the Académie des Beaux-Arts in 1989 and served as its president in 1995.

Nigg died November 12, 2008, aged 84.

Works Concerto for Piano and Wind Instruments, 1943 Concerto for Piano and String Orchestra, 1943 Piano Sonata No. 1, 1943 Timour, symphonic poem, 1944 Variations for Piano and 10 Instruments, 1946 Four Mélodies on poems by Paul Éluard, 1950 Billiard, ballet, 1950 Pour un poète captif, symphonic poem, 1951 Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 1, 1954 Concerto for Violin and Orchestra, 1960 Concerto for Flute and String Orchestra, 1960 Jérôme Bosch, symphony, 1960 Histoire d'œuf, conte musical based on Blaise Cendrars, 1961 Pour un Tombeau d'Anatole, 1961 Visages d'Axël, 1965–67 Fulgur, 1970 Concerto No. 2 for Piano and Orchestra, 1971 Fastes de l'imaginaire, 1974 Mirrors for William Blake, 1979 Million d'oiseaux d'or, 1981 String Quartet Du clair au sombre, song cycle for soprano and chamber orchestra, based on poems by Paul Éluard Arioso for Cello und Piano, 1987 Concerto No. 1 for Viola and Orchestra, 1987–1988 Poème for orchestra, 1990 Sonata for Piano and Violin, 1996 Tumultes for piano, 1998 Deux images de nuits for piano, 1999 Concerto No. 2 for Viola and Orchestra, 2000