Francis Bayer (c. 11 July 1938 â 2 January 2004) was a French composer and musicologist.
Born in Villerville (Calvados), it was only after having undertaken postgraduate studies in philosophy at the University of Paris, studies that led him to a doctorate, that Bayer decided to devote himself to musical composition. He was then a student of Henri Dutilleux at the ÃÂcole Normale de Musique de Paris and obtained a degree in composition in his class in 1970.
Among his main works are Perspectives for solo cello (1991), the Prélude àla nuit for orchestra (1992âÂÂ96), as well as the Propositions series, a cycle of eight pieces for different audiences, each composed between 1972 and 1989, each illustrating in its own way what can be called a "poetic timbre".
In addition to his activity as a composer, Bayer has been teaching aesthetics and musical analysis as well as instrumentation and orchestration since 1971 in the Music Department of the Paris 8 University where he had as students future composers as different in their aesthetic orientations as Bernard Cavanna, Pascal Dusapin, Jean-Louis Florentz, Régis Renouard-Larivière, Bernard de Vienne and Patrick Andrey, for example.
He is also the author of several studies published in various journals and of an important theoretical book entitled: De Schönberg àCage, published in Paris by Klincksieck Editions and, in collaboration with Nicolas Zourabichvili, of a translation and critical edition of the Correspondance de Moussorgski (Fayard).
Bayer died from cancer in Paris at age 65.