Preludes: an interview with composer and pianist Raphael Eligoulachvili
Innocence and fear. Fragility and playfulness. Welcome to the land of childhood where whimsy and imagination let the mind roam free. On his 2022 piano album Préludes—Avant le Jeu composer and pianist Raphael Eligoulachvili takes the listener on a musical journey back to this place—back, perhaps, to our own memories of the joys and griefs we knew in our own childhoods.
Eligoulachvili is a true musical polymath. Trained as a pianist, and eventually as a composer of electronic music, he has composed hit songs and award-winning film scores, all while using new technologies to experiment with new artistic forms. An active performer and composer in France, it is an honor to feature him on No Dead Guys.
At what age did you start studying music and when did you begin writing your own compositions?
I started studying music when I was 10 years old and, for the first time, had a piano in my father’s apartment. I began to write my own compositions at 14 years old. They were mostly songs that I sang.
What composers have had the most influence on your compositional style?
Nino Rota in Fellini’s soundtracks, Ryuchi Sakamoto for his piano works and his eclectism, Erik Satie for his modernism, Wendy Carlos for her pioneering in electronic music and Ennio Morricone for his unique orchestrations.
Why were you drawn to writing film music and what movies most influenced this decision?
I think one of the movies that really inspired me the most was John Cassavetes’s A Woman Under the Influence. For the first time I felt the fragility of the music and the familiarity of the sound of the piano’s playing. Years later I learnt that John Cassavetes used the demos of his composer Bo Harwood, recorded on a cassette player, as the definitive score in the movie,
Also Once Upon a Time in the West by Ennio Morricone. And I loved Lalo Schifrin’s Bullitt, Michel Legrand’s score of The Thomas Crown Affair and Wendy Carlos’ in A Clockwork Orange.
I understand that you studied electronic music at Stanford University’s Center for Computer Research & Acoustics. What encouraged you to pursue electronic rather than acoustic music?
I was attracted by new technologies through movies such as Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey (Hal’s voice), The Conversation (Walter Murch’s sound design), and A Clockwork Orange (Wendy’s arrangement of Beethoven played with a vocoder).
Research in music has always attracted me.
You’ve had a successful career that has encompassed being a composer for EMI Group, writing for theater, TV, films, advertising, and even composing songs for soloists such as Gloria Gaynor, Yi Zhou and Sophia Aram. To what do you attribute your ability to create in so many different styles?
Before studying composition I wrote a lot of songs in a pop rock style and released a couple of records as a singer under the name Raphael Elig. You can listen to “J’me Fais du Bien” on Spotify
I have always loved collaborations that gave me new opportunities and opened new directions in music.
I was drawn to your music through your 2022 piano album, Préludes—Avant le Jeu. What inspired it, and what drew you to compose for solo piano after so many successful non-piano ventures?
When I moved, I took my study piano from my father’s apartment and it became my children’s study piano. This gave me the idea of writing piano pieces that would refer to my musical history so I called them “Preludes avant le jeu” in reference to childhood. In French we use the same word for play and game (jeu).
It was my personal way of transmitting musical ideas.
Can you tell us a bit about your choice of tracks on Préludes—Avant le Jeu? Was there a reason why you didn’t include all your preludes on this album?
I wrote about 30 tracks for this album and finally for the final editing of the album (like the editing of a movie) I selected 18 tracks in a given order to tell a story and kept the numeration, so there’s almost half of it missing.
I noticed that the majority of your preludes are waltzes. What do you think this time-feel brings to this collection of pieces?
I wanted these little miniatures, these little phrases and melodies, to build a shelter and open a protective space where we can dream, watch the world, and remember. I think the 3/4 waltz was appropriate for this.
My two favorite tracks on this album are Prélude No. 10 and Prélude No. 8. Both waltzes feel like whimsical vignettes. What aspect of childhood experience most inspired these compositions?
Both of these pieces were songs. Prelude No. 10 is a ritornella that evokes the merry-go-round and children playing.
Why did you include several “Interludes” in an album dedicated to “Préludes”?
At the beginning I wanted the preludes to be more figurative while the interludes would be more abstract. I wanted a mix of two kinds of piano pieces to make a contrast and provide breathing space between the preludes.
Is there sheet music available for Préludes—Avant le Jeu? If so, where might we purchase it?
Yes the album Preludes - Avant le Jeu is available here.
What current or future projects are you most excited about?
For years I have written down more than 900 dreams, every morning transcribing the synopsis of these films projected in my sleep. For my upcoming album Dreams, I composed music from my dreams much like short movies. This album will come out in the first quarter of 2024.
There is also a documentary soundtrack that was just released called Ady Steg, the life of a famous French professor. In this soundtrack I tried to mix what I like the most in movie soundtracks: acoustic sounds, piano, electronic textures and orchestral arrangements.
What advice can you offer to young musicians seeking to create a career for themselves in music?
Be as versatile you can, and be constant, pugnacious and patient.
After classical studies at the École Normale de Musique de Paris and harmony, counterpoint and fugue lessons with Jeannine Richer, Raphael Eligoulachvili followed with the film music classes of Laurent Petitgirard. He completed his training by studying electronic music at the CCRMA, (Center For Computer Research In Music & Acoustics) acoustic and musical research centre of the Stanford University in California.
His professional career began as a composer, author and performer at EMI Group where he released two records in the early 1990s (J'me Fais du Bien and Les Garçons Aiment les Filles). In parallel he wrote music for the theatre (Patrick Timsit, Clémentine Célarié, Sophia Aram, for the TV (Chic, Square Artist on Arte and Cash Investigation, Thalassa on France TV) and also composed advertising music for prestigious brands (Cartier, Vuitton, Air France, etc.).
He wrote songs for Gloria Gaynor, Yi Zhou, Sophia Aram
In the mid 90's, he joined the band Res Rocket, with English and American musicians on the internet. The principle was to play music remotely and use the internet as a vector of creation. The project was covered by many international medias (CNN, MTV, Canal+, etc.).
In 2003 he explored video and new technologies for a while to experiment with new artistic forms.
In 2008, he composed the music in collaboration with Eric Wenger for Marc Caro's (Delicatessen and La Cité des enfants perdus) first solo feature, Dante 01.
And in 2013, he composed the music for Rue Mandar, an Idit Cebula's film.
In 2019, he began recording his album Préludes - Avant le Jeu. For this piano project he found simplicity and minimalism in the composition of his melodies. He inscribed this work in the tradition of piano pieces such as Schumann's Children's Scenes, Giya Kancheli's 33 miniatures, Chick Corea's Children Songs, "I wrote these pieces to express the simplicity as beauty, as represented in the mind of a child. "
It is this personal work around childhood and transmission that allowed the meeting with the director Samir Guesmi at the end of 2019. He composed and performed the music for his feature film Ibrahim produced by Why Not Productions.
The rediscovery of the use of music in John Cassavetes' A Woman Under the Influence convinced him to record the music for the film on his study piano in his apartment, as an extension of his work on the album. There is a large place for silence, considering that this is part of the composition, the music and its breathing.
In September 2020, at the Angoulême Francophone Film Festival, Ibrahim won prizes including that for best music. "The film music that we have decided to reward takes the place it should take, it sublimates without ever caricaturing. We were very touched by this sensitive and naive piano matched to the emotions of adolescence." Prizes awarded on stage by singer Clara Luciani on behalf of the 2020 Festival Jury. In November 2021 the film Ibrahim won the First Feature Award at COLCOA the French Film Festival in Los Angeles.
His research in the field of music for images has always allowed encounters and interactions with the world of other artists.