25 Facts About Claude Ballif

Claude Ballif was a French composer, writer, and pedagogue.

Claude Ballif worked at a number of institutions throughout more than 40 years of teaching, one of which he had attended as a student.

Claude Ballif was described as a French modernist and as "the product of the exciting and turbulent post World War II years of the Western avant-garde" alongside composers Pierre Boulez and Karlheinz Stockhausen.

Claude Ballif was born in Paris on 22 May 1924, the fifth of ten children.

Claude Ballif grew up in a bourgeois family but did not recognize the privilege of his childhood as a rarity until much later.

Claude Ballif's brother was Andre-Jean Festugiere and her first cousin was George Desvallieres.

Claude Ballif's father, Colonel Laurent Claude Ballif, was a senior military officer who served in the Tibesti War, World War I, and World War II.

Claude Ballif started music at an early age; though the piano was his first love, he was told piano was for girls and that his fingers would never be able to make the right positions, so he learned violin.

When Claude Ballif was 13, his father was assigned to a base in Madagascar and the family moved to Antananarivo.

Claude Ballif learned the play the djembe, the valiha, and the flute.

The family returned to France while Claude Ballif was still in high school and he started at the Conservatoire de Bordeaux in 1942 at 18.

Claude Ballif left in 1948 to attend the Conservatoire de Paris with Aubin and Messiaen as his teachers and Alain Weber, Michel Fano, and Jean-Michel Defaye as his classmates.

Claude Ballif dropped out in 1951 before finishing his degree because he did not feel that he could properly express himself with the academic constraints on the students' music.

Claude Ballif spent three summers in Germany, particularly at the Darmstadter Ferienkurse, where he met Luciano Berio, Bruno Maderna, Luigi Nono, and Karlheinz Stockhausen.

Claude Ballif interpreted the Darmstadt Summer Courses for John Cage, who did not speak German.

Claude Ballif performed the music for film advertisements for a while and in 1959 started at the Groupe de Recherche Musicale with Pierre Schaeffer.

Claude Ballif taught at the Regional Conservatory of Reims and as a visiting professor at McGill University in Montreal.

Claude Ballif subsequently taught in Sevran for ten years before visiting Venezuela with Williams Montesinos and Austin Marianu in July 2000.

Claude Ballif taught lessons on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays, and spent the rest of his time at his piano.

Claude Ballif spent the final years of his life living in Haute-Marne at the Chateau de Riaucourt, which had been passed down to him by his maternal grandfather.

Claude Ballif died on 24 July 2004 in Saint-Dizier and is buried in Poissons.

Claude Ballif struggled in his early years of music study with balancing his need for independent creation and the university's regimented music lessons.

Claude Ballif published his first book about metatonality in 1956.

Claude Ballif added referential and orient concepts to his theory as well.

Claude Ballif's music was deeply influenced by his staunch Catholicism.