Maurice Ohana, a composer of cosmopolitan cultural upbringing, is undoubtedly an individualist, but his late style reflects strong influence exerted by Debussy and Stravinsky. In reaction to serialism, Ohana founded the Groupe Zodiaque to announce their rejection of post-Webern serialism and promoted the study of folk music, plainsong and the vocal works of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. He also advocated for cultivating the tribal music of the north African Berbers and black Africans, musical influences that he was exposed to in his youth which formed the basis of his musical style. He employed chiefly Spanish idioms, like the Cante jondo, in his works in the 1950s not to evoke the usual romantic exoticism of a foreign land, but rather a certain grotesque, tragic image of Spain. However, Ohana’s mature style in the 1960s reveals his affinity with Debussy and Stravinsky; this is especially notable in his use of melodic parallelism and third-tones, which can be seen as a coloristic extension of the whole-tone scale. Spanish idioms, on the other hand, are employed more subtly in his later works. Influence of jazz and oriental theatre also influenced his compositional approach.

Works: Maurice Ohana: Tiento (70), Tombeau de Claude Debussy (71), Anneau du Tamarit (71), Études d’interprétation (71), Signes (74), T’Haran-Ngo (74), Livre des prodiges (74).

Sources: Manuel de Falla: Homenaje a Debussy (70), El Amor Brujo (71); Debussy: Pelléas et Mélisande (71), Estampes (71), En blanc et noir (71); Federico García Lorca: Divan del Tamarit (71), La Célestine (71); Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring (74).

Index Classifications: 1900s

Contributed by: Jingyi Zhang