Edith Canat de Chizy

born in Lyon in 1950, she has been living in Paris since 1970. She is
a graduate from the Paris-Sorbonne University in arts and technology as well as in philosophy. She graduated from the Conservatoire National Supérieur in Paris, gaining first awards in several subjects, including analysis and composition. She studied under Ivo Malec and Maurice Ohana, whom she met in 1983, working at the same time on electro-acoustic music at the Conservatoire de Paris and within the framework of the Groupe de Recherche Musicale. She has received many prestigious awards including the composition prizes of Hervé Dugardin (1987), George Enescu (1991) and Paul-Louis Weiller (1992), and the award at the unesco International Composers’ Rostrum (for the orchestral work Yell, 1990). She also won the sacd ‘Young Musical Talent’ prize (1998) and a special distinction at the Prince of Monaco Competition (for the cello concerto Moera, 1999). She was nominated for the Victoires de la Musique in 2000. In 1994 she was appointed a Chevalier des Arts. She was a composer-in-residence at the Metz Arsenal in 1997/1998.

Selected works (since 1984): Tlaloc for solo percussion (1984), Nyx for three violins (1984), Livre d’heures for vocal quartet and instrumental ensemble (1984), Yell for orchestra (1985), Black-Light for oboe, viola, double bass and piano (1986), Llama for unaccompanied choir (1986), Kyoran for flute, clarinet, violin, cello and percussion (1987), Appels for oboe, violin, cello, harpsichord and percussion (1989), Hallel for string trio (1991), De Noche for orchestra (1991), SiloĎl for 12 strings (1992), Canciones for 12 voices (1992), Alphae for flute, clarinet, violin, cello and percussion (1993), Tombeau de Gilles de Rais, oratorio for two solo voices, children’s choir with one soloist, mixed choir and orchestra (1993), Exultet, concerto for violin and orchestra (1995), Messe de l’Ascension for 12 voices, vocal ensemble, liturgical choir, childrens’ voice and instrumental ensemble (three versions: short, concert and liturgical, 1996), Estam-pes for percussion and piano (1997), Danse de l’aube for double bass (1998), Moera, cello concerto (1998), Mobiles immobiles for piano (1998), Irisations for violin (1999), Tiempo for string trio (1999), Véga for organ (2000), Exil for six voices and six cellos, to a text by Marina Tsvetayeva (2000), Vivere for string quartet (2001), Moving for string trio (2001), Ode ą Purcell for eight voices, two recorders, cello and harpsichord (2001), To Gather Paradise for mixed choir, to a text by Emily Dickinson (2001), Alio for orchestra (2002), Clair et noir for 12 mixed voices, harpsichord and percussion (2002), Formes du vent for solo cello (2003), Falaises for string quartet and cello (2003), Wild for viola and cello (2003), Nedjma for orche-stra (2003), Intrada: La SeptiŹme trompette for orchestra (2004), La SorciŹre de Jasmin, oratorio for mixed choir and instrumental ensemble (2004).
Quatrains
It is several years now since I came across Emily Dickinson’s poetry. Two works followed: Lands Away for string orchestra and cymbalom (1999) and To Gather Paradise for choir (2001).
When I met Claire Malroux, her French translator, I discovered the Quatrains that she had just translated. I was astonished by the coincidence between the conciseness of the poems and my own conception of form, equally brief and concise, with no room left for development.
This work is also articulated in quatrains: ‘To Wait Eternity’, ‘With Death to Be’, ‘Auroral Light’ and ‘ This is Immensity’.
Besides, the work belongs to a series on the ‘temptations’ by the Musicatreize Ensemble. ‘Poet of the threshold, at the crossing point between the visible and the invisible’, as Claire Malroux underlines, Emily Dickinson’s temptation remains in her contemplation of eternity where her life consumes itself:

The Stimulus, beyond the Grave
His Countenance to see
Supports me like imperial Drams
Afforded Day by Day