The Canadian Music Centre in Quebec announced Thursday afternoon the death of composer Serge Arcuri following a long illness. Serge Arcuri had just turned 70 on June 10.
One of the great living composers of Quebec will therefore not complete his Requiem, of which the regrets and the light of this will remain eternally Lux Aeterna six-voice filmed in December 2020 by the Ensemble Mirabilia led by Myriam Leblanc and which can be found on YouTube.
These seven minutes say a lot about the subtle richness of the sound poetry of Serge Arcuri, to whom his musician friends paid tribute at the Canadian Music Center (CMC) on 1er last May during an intimate concert that The duty had commented, evoking “The great solitude of Serge Arcuri”.
We must obviously enrich the possible discovery, on YouTube, of the composer by listening to the monograph “Migrations”, published on CD by Atma in 2011. This disc made us write then: “Serge Arcuri therefore possesses what makes the essence of a great composer: a language and a world. In this, he has the makings of becoming our Einojhuhani Rautavaara or our Peteris Vasks… but more skinned. »
Bitter regrets
Nothing has come to counter this impression, but nothing has come to reinforce it either since the greatest difficulty for a composer is to make himself heard. We could have had hope with The movements of the soul, for violin and orchestra, score created in 2013 by Andrew Wan and the OSM under the direction of Jacques Lacombe. But the order was for a piece for violin in an agreed format (the protocol formatted 10-15 minutes); much better than nothing, much less than a real violin concerto, even if it is described that way.
The list of Arcuri’s works, made available by the CMC, shows that the composer’s legacy is not plethoric. It includes numerous attempts at confluence between acoustic instrumental music and electronics or recorded sounds, very few orchestral pieces (Aggregates from 1979 and Bitters of 1986, then The stones of the sun from dawn to night of 2007). During the May concert, we were very impressed by the Fragments for solo piano chosen by Louise Bessette.
A student of Gilles Tremblay at the Conservatory, Serge Arcuri won the CAPAC (SOCAN) Sir Ernest MacMillan Prize in 1981 for Aggregates. In addition to “Migrations”, the ATMA CD from 2011, another monograph was published in 1993 by Empreintes Digitales under the title “Les méandres du rêve”. More than two out of three works by Serge Arcuri are not accessible.
In a portrait, “The soul searcher”, woven by THE Duty In 2013, Serge Arcuri, who has also composed for theatre, cinema and television, revealed his admiration for György Ligeti, Anton Webern and Edgard Varèse. This trio sums up many things and the presence of Webern, master of sound refinement in a complex simplicity, is crucial.
In the article, written at the time by philosopher Michel Seymour, we read: “He does not have a position at the Conservatory or at the university, but does not feel ostracized. The Quebec music scene is, according to him, too small to give rise to petty squabbles.” We will never know if the question was: “If you had a position, do you think you would be played according to your talent?” But, as we read further: “Arcuri has been rolling around for three decades and nothing surprises him anymore. […] Without being disillusioned, but without having any illusions, over the years he has learned to “come to terms” with this difficult reality. »
Cruel fate. The lack is all the greater because we do not know what we missed and why!