Ramon Humet
*9 October 1968
Works by Ramon Humet
Biography
Ramon Humet is an award-winning composer born in 1968 who has received the Olivier Messiaen International Composition Prize and the XXIV Queen Sofia International Composition Prize.
Ramon Humet studied composition with Josep Soler, piano with Harriet Serr and Miquel Farré, and improvisation with Gerry Weil. In 2000, he met the British composer Jonathan Harvey, an encounter that deeply marked his creative path.
In 2007 he was awarded the Olivier Messiaen International Composition Prize, which brought the commission —on the initiative of conductor Kent Nagano— of the orchestral composition Scenes of Wind for the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, premiered in 2008 and conducted by Jacques Lacombe. His orchestral music has also received awards such as the XXIV Queen Sofia International Composition Prize and the XVI International Composition Prize Ciutat de Tarragona. In 2014 he was the guest composer at Palau de la Música Catalana, and in the 2019-2020 season he was the guest composer at Auditori of Barcelona.
Ramon Humet’s music exudes an intense love of nature, embodied in some of his symphonic works. This can be seen in works such as Música del no ésser (Music of Non-being), premiered by the Barcelona Symphony Orchestra conducted by Pablo Gonzalez, El temps i la campana (Time and the Bell), premiered by Spanish National Orchestra conducted by Guillermo García Calvo, or Escenes d’ocells (Scenes of Birds), an orchestral work that has been the subject of multiple performances conducted by Jean François Rivest, Adrian Leaper, Roberto Minczuk, Víctor Pablo Pérez, Edmon Colomer and Rubén Gimeno with several orchestras.
Piano music is a key facet in the catalogue of Humet's works, and Volume III in the series Escenes del bosc (Forest Scenes) stands out: the piece was commissioned by the Association pour la Création et la Diffusion Artistique and was premiered at the Cité de la Musique in 2007 as a mandatory piece in the prestigious Concours Olivier Messiaen for piano. Additionally, volume V was premiered at Tokyo Opera Recital Hall in 2014 by Satoko Inoue.
In 2017 he writes Music for Ekstasis, a lost Martha Graham's solo reimagined by Virginie Mécène and premiered by the Martha Graham Dance Company at the Joyce Theater, New York. This work has been performed around the world: Opéra de Paris, Teatro Real de Madrid, National Centre for the Performing Arts of Beijing, Luxembourg, Germany, Canada, etc... Music for Ekstasis is the soundtrack of the videoclip Breathing by the legendary Japanese artist Hiroshi Sugimoto. In 2019 he premieres Homenaje a Martha Graham, with choreography by Virginie Mécène, PeiJu Chien-Pott as soloist, Sarah Maria Sun, Alberto Rosado, Kakizakai Kaoru and Neopercusión. This work has been recorded with 3D system in a double CD produced by Neu Records.
Some of his most relevant works for chamber music have been released on a specially designed compact disc, Niwa, recorded by London Sinfonietta and conducted by Nicholas Collon. This CD, produced by Neu Records label, has been recorded with high definition sound and 5.1 Surround system, and has been reviewed by Gramophone Magazine as a 'fascinating project'. Often inspired by Japanese traditional music for shakuhachi, 'Desert', for shakuhachi and orchestra, has been premiered by Horacio Curti and the Spanish National Orchestra conducted by Paolo Bressan.
Ramon Humet has taught composition at the Liceu Conservatory since 2009. Among his former students stand out as successful composers: Joan Magrané, Miquel Oliu, Carles de Castellarnau, Maria Camahort, ... He has a wide repertoire of vocal, instrumental, electroacoustic and stage music, with particular attention paid to orchestral production.
In 2021, a portrait CD has been released by Ondine with the choral work Llum, with the Latvian Radio Choir conducted by Sigvards Klava.
About the music
Ramon Humet’s most relevant works for chamber music has been recorded by the London Sinfonietta on a CD released by Neu Records. Josep Maria Guix looks closer at Humet’s music.
Like a Japanese garden, the music of Ramon Humet is beautiful, refined, transparent, and often playful. It is so, both in intention and in the measured use of the means employed, –I cannot but relate his music to Joan Miró’s series Constellations. His work is capable of conveying the happy fascination of a child making a new discovery: music of magical smiles built on a foundation of solid technique. Music that flows naturally, –a feat in itself!– that seems to disguise the hours of experimentation and careful thought that went into its composition.
Humet had long been captivated by shakuhachi, to the extent of taking regular classes in order to play it himself. This knowledge from the inside has allowed him to integrate aspects of the ancient flute into his music: its tonal inflections, the presence of air as an essential part of musical discourse, the meditative nature of the music.
His sensitivity towards Asian culture has germinated in very fertile ground, planted long before. Ramon Humet’s restless personality has been forged in various fields: musical, literary, technological, and that of life itself. The study of the piano, at first, and, later, of composition, provided the essential theoretical and practical basis for the development of professional skills –a “necessary” condition, as he says, but “insufficient in itself to create interesting music”. His knowledge of engineering, meanwhile, has made it simpler to apply technology to performance and composition.
But the real turning point was meeting Jonathan Harvey. From that meeting, new creative horizons opened up, above all the influence of spectralism, –mostly in practical terms, of research and treatment of materials, rather than in a dogmatic sense. From here arose the passion for all those composers –George Benjamin, György Ligeti, Toru Takemitsu, Per Norgard– who are so careful with harmony, subtle in their modulation of orchestral colour, true to the desire to innovate without destroying the link with tradition. This last aspect is crucial for those who approach the legacy of the Masters “with great respect and admiration”. Talking with Ramon Humet means sharing the delight he takes in art, the poetry of Basho or Pessoa, or the polyphonic music of the Renaissance. He has never ceased to transmit an enviable enthusiasm for everything he does.
Residing in a small village of the Baix Camp area, at the foot of a rocky hill, the author has left behind the constant tumult of the big city of his birth, valiantly rejecting everything that is not essential to be able to compose. Always aware of recent developments, of significant changes, –his isolation has nothing to do with an apocalyptic attitude, and he is perfectly integrated into today’s culture–, the composer sits at his table, a cup of green tea in his hand, and goes back to his music, -humbly, rigorously, and with love -, picking up from the point where he left it the day before.
Josep Maria Guix
AD ASTRA | New CD recording with the Quartet Gerhard
AD ASTRA is the new compact disc released by the brilliant Gerhard Quartet, featuring the Claude Debussy quartet and my second string quartet "I fa l'air visible". The album will be presented in Paris at the Colonne Hall on December 8 and at the Palau de la Música Catalana in Barcelona in January 2024.
The CD was recorded by Santi Barguñó and published by Klarthe. The physical CD can be purchased on the Klarthe website, and listened to on Spotify and the main streaming platforms:
Claude Debussy - Quatuor á cordes en sol mineur, opus 10 (1893)
1. I. Animé et très décidé / 2. II. Assez vif et bien rythmé / 3. III. Andantino, doucement expressif / 4. IV. Très modéré - En animant peu à peu - Tres mouvementé et avec passion
Ramon Humet - I fa l’aire visible (And it turns the air visible) (2020)
5. I. Aire / 6. II. Silenci / 7. III. Estels / 8. IV. Aire / 9. V. Silenci / 10. VI. Lluna / 11. VII. Estels / 12. VIII. Aire / 13. IX. Lluna / 14. X. Silenci
Quartet Gerhard
Lluís Castán Cochs, violin
Judit Bardolet Vilaró, violin
Miquel Jordà Saún, viola
Jesús Miralles Roger, cello