Clermont Pépin

Jean-Josephat Clermont Pépin (Saint-Georges-de-Beauce, Quebec, 15 May 1926) was one of the most significant Canadian composers of the second half of the twentieth century, and also a key figure in the reform of music teaching in his country. His training combined piano, harmony and composition in Quebec, Philadelphia, Montreal and Toronto, and culminated in Paris, where he came into contact with the music of Berg, Schoenberg and Messiaen.

As a child he studied piano and harmony with Georgette Dionne. In 1937 he won a composition prize from the Canadian performing rights society, and shortly afterwards moved to Montreal to train with Claude Champagne. In 1941 he secured a scholarship to the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia, where he worked with Rosario Scalero. After returning to Montreal and completing his studies at the conservatory, he broadened his training in Toronto with Arnold Walter and Lubka Kolessa. In 1949 he won the Prix d'Europe, which allowed him to spend six years in Paris with teachers including Yves Nat, Jolivet and Honegger.

His encounter with twelve-tone and serial music transformed his style, which until then had been strongly marked by Franck and Rachmaninov. Works such as Guernica (1952) and Le rite du soleil noir (1955) show a partial use of serialism, which he later extended in his string quartets, in his Symphony No. 2 and in Nombres (1962). His writing is distinguished by a lively sense of rhythm and by careful attention to contrasts of texture.

Alongside his creative work, he taught at the Conservatoire de Montréal, serving as its director from 1967 to 1973. With a Canada Council grant he visited dozens of European conservatories, and in 1965 he co-founded the Centre d'Etudes Prospectives du Québec, inspired by a Parisian institute. He also presided over CAPAC from 1981 to 1983.

His interest in the relationship between music, science and spirituality is reflected in series such as Monades and in works such as Quasars (1967), inspired by the discovery of quasars, and La messe sur le monde, in which he expresses his admiration for Teilhard de Chardin. He received the Calixa-Lavallée Music Prize in 1970 and was appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada in 1981.

His legacy is twofold: a broad catalogue ranging from ballet and incidental music to the symphony, and a long dedication to teaching and to musical life in Quebec, which continues through the Clermont-Pépin Prize, created for young artists from his native region.