The practice of writing

Thanks to a teaching team with extremely varied areas of expertise, the Haute école de musique de Genève (HEM) offers its theory students writing training that is both demanding and open to a very wide range of styles.

The complementary nature of our professors’ academic paths and fields of expertise enables the students to enjoy great freedom of choice when it comes to the stylistic fields they want to explore and gain an insight into.

As the main subject of the theoretical training, the “Practice of writing” class covers Western musical styles from the Middle Ages to the 21st century. This class enables the students to be monitored and guided in specific experimentation relating to the musical concepts associated with these eras.

The advantages of the writing classes include:

A vision of writing music that is not cloistered, enabling a diverse range of writing styles and approaches to be put in contact with each other.
A team of teachers with complementary skills, who are active in musical life: composers, arrangers, orchestra leaders, improvisers and choir conductors, the teachers bring a living musical perspective to the act of writing.
Very wide fields of writing approaches: thanks to our teachers’ cumulative fields of expertise, numerous musical approaches can be explored. The students may already have been inspired by composers from the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, by the fundamentals of baroque, classical or romantic writing, or by the major trends in the 20th century...
An exploration of the past that leads to works being created in the present: works composed by young theoreticians are worked on and interpreted by the students of the HEM at an annual performance-exam. The writing process is thus taken through to completion and promoted at a public performance.
A class that is constantly evolving: the stylistic fields explored can be enlarged without any limitations. A regular link with the activities of the composition classes enables the student, in particular, to be aware of changes in contemporary writing. Furthermore, ties to the ethnomusicology course and the Department of Music of the Past also help to enrich the sources and areas of thought.
Connection with musical analysis: a constant connection with musical analysis is built into the writing activities. Some of the classes offered at the University of Geneva also make it possible to complete students’ training in this field.

Teachers

Nicolas Bolens

Head of the Composition and Theory Department - Professor of Counterpoint, 20th-Century Writing, and Practical Writing - Coordinator of General Music Training Modules

En associant traditions et explorations nouvelles des matières sonores, les œuvres de Nicolas Bolens investissent l’espace en valorisant les éléments et les sujets qui se présentent à lui. Combining traditions and new explorations of sound materials, the works of Nicolas Bolens invest in space by enhancing the elements and subjects that present themselves to him. His music is regularly connected to other elements: texts, films, places, evocations... In each context, he seeks an authentic dramaturgy that promotes unprecedented settings. For example, with the Batida ensemble, he imagined "Welcome to the Castle" (2017), three musical acts for musicians moving through the Allymes Castle near Amberieu-en-Bugey. For the Gémeau Quartet, he wrote "La Ville Oblique" (2013), a string quartet conceived as a musical extension of the short film "Un Chien Andalou" by Dalí and Buñuel. Written words, most often poetic, permeate his entire production. He has composed on poems by Celan, Sachs, Mallarmé, Char, Blok, Khayyam, Michaux, Éluard, Basho, Neruda, Rilke, Adonis, Shakespeare... These authors, from various times and origins, have led him to integrate many languages into his works, considering their sonic as well as semantic potentials. Orchestration also holds an important place in his work, rethinking the instrumentation of certain past works. In 2018, he re-orchestrated "Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen" and the 4th Symphony by Gustav Mahler for the Lemanic Modern Ensemble under the direction of conductor Pierre Bleuse. Commissioned by the association Ouverture Opera, his recent rewriting of Mozart's "The Magic Flute" follows the same approach. Nicolas Bolens has notably collaborated with the Batida ensemble, the Lemanic Modern Ensemble, the Swiss Chamber Soloists, the Ensemble Vocal de Lausanne, the Ensemble Vocal Polhymnia, the Ensemble Vortex, the Basler Madrigalisten, and the Ensemble Vocal Séquence... Born in Geneva, he first studied piano at the Conservatoire de musique de Genève, then completed his training in the composition class of Jean Balissat. He further honed his skills with Rudolph Kelterborn, Klaus Huber, Edison Denisov, and Eric Gaudibert. He is the recipient of numerous composition prizes, including those from the Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne (1993) and the Banque Cantonale Neuchâteloise (2002), as well as a scholarship from the Leenaards Foundation (1998). An engaged pedagogue and artist, he teaches counterpoint, 20th-century writing, and composition at the Haute école de musique de Genève, where he has been the head of the Composition and Theory Department since 2015. He is also involved in several institutions related to musical creation in Switzerland, including the Swiss Musicians Association, the Archipel Festival Association, the Nicati-de-Luze Foundation, and the Artistic Council of the Geneva Competition. Learn more about Nicolas Bolens

Charlotte Perrey Beaude

Professor of Writing Practice - Cadence Writing - Music Theory

Charlotte Perrey began her musical studies with piano, quickly developing a strong inclination for improvisation and composition. After studying in advanced mathematics classes, she fully devoted herself to music and specialized in writing under the guidance of Stéphane Delplace. She continued her studies at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Paris, where she earned First Prizes in Harmony, Counterpoint, 20th-21st Century Writing, Fugue and Forms, as well as the Marcel Dautremer Prize. She studied notably with Jean-François Zygel, Thierry Escaich, and Marc-André Dalbavie. She currently teaches at the Haute école de musique de Lausanne and the Haute école de musique de Genève.

Rodolphe Schacher

Professor of Writing Practice - Analysis - Harmony - Counterpoint

Franco-Swiss composer and pianist Rodolphe Schacher was born in France in 1973. Schacher pursued his musical studies in Paris, Geneva, and Zurich, under the guidance of Michael Jarrell, Thierry Escaich, Gerald Bennett, and Ulrich Koella. He has been awarded five first prizes (harmony, counterpoint, Renaissance counterpoint, fugue and forms, and 20th-century music) at the CNSM in Paris and received the composition and theory diploma with honors, as well as the concert diploma in chamber music from the Zurich University of the Arts. Alongside his artistic activities, Schacher teaches analysis and writing at the Haute école de musique de Genève, writing at the Haute école de musique de Lausanne, and taught composition until June 2015 at the Zurich University of the Arts.

Antoine Schneider

Professor of Practical Writing - Contrepoint

After studying violin and musicology in Geneva, Antoine Schneider furthered his musical theory education in Zurich with Burkhard Kinzler and Andreas Nick. He also trained in musical direction, piano, and baroque violin. He is currently a professor of solfège and counterpoint at the Haute école de musique de Genève and the Haute école des arts de Berne, as well as a professor of musical training at the ESM Bourgogne-Franche-Comté (Early Music Department). In his teaching, he specializes in the practices of musical improvisation during the Renaissance period. He is regularly invited to give masterclasses across Europe and collaborates with Jean-Yves Haymoz, Barnabé Janin (CNSMD Lyon), and the Helicona project. He is the co-responsible for the website Super librum cantare (www.superlibrum.com).