In 'Und so weiter' the piano and tape sounds become interwoven in a complex dialogue.' Music Promenade', created in two periods: the period of recording from 1964 to 1967 and the period of mixing and editing from 1966 to 1969 – describes a magnetophonic memory trip through several years in which Ferrari recorded everything that attracted his attention.
Luc Ferrari first obtained a thorough, traditional technique in composition. He took piano lessons with Alfred Cortot, composition lessons with Arthur Honegger and musical analysis with Olivier Messiaen. However, he proceeded to become interested in the recording process to such a degree that he began to make tape pieces using altered ambient sounds and later incorporated electronics into his work in an effective and original manner.
In 1954, his life altered radically when he boarded a ship and traveled to New York to meet Edgard Varèse, after having been impressed by live radio broadcast of his Déserts for tape and orchestra. From Varèse, Ferrari learned to treat sound as a thing in and of itself; also to place sound objects in the right time and space, from both an audio and psychological point of view.
Beyond his work involving technology, Ferrari composed a large body of instrumental music, ranging from very early piano solos to works for large orchestra, such as 'Histoire du plaisir et de la désolation' (1979-81), a towering 35-minute work in three movements which won the International Koussevitsky Prize for recordings when it was released in 1990. Also among his important credits are a series of invaluable television films which he made about the rehearsal processes of Varése, Messiaen, Stockhausen and others.
Luc Ferrari died of pneumonia in Arezzo, Italy, in August 2005.
