The soloists of the O.R.T.F. choirs conducted by Marcel Couraud, with Sylvio Gualda as soloist, also gave their first performance of Danaé, by François-Bernard Mâche, a very free-looking piece, without any particular research, but not lacking in charm.
                                             Louis Dandrel, Le Monde 2 February 1971 
                                                (At the Angers Festival, 23 January 1971)

On Saturday we liked Danaé, by François-Bernard Mâche,...an author to be reckoned with, the only one, moreover, to say the right things during Sunday's colloquium (that, for example, a return to the primitive cry is reactionary; that performance will soon be obsolete in favour of radio, record or television; that musical theatre will be performed at the expense of the complexity of scores or will pose problems for music stands).

                                 G.-D. Percet, Courrier de l'Ouest, 25 January 1971

In Danaé by François-Bernard Mâche there is a narrative project, as in a symphonic poem. To this end, the composer also uses obsessive percussion effects (with our Messerklinger hitting the bass drum, African drums, tam-tam, suspended cymbal; and the choristers waving drums in place of crotales). The piece is not lacking in effect, but it does seem a little dispersive.      
                                     M.M. La Stampa, Torino, 26 February 1971

Finally, the premiere of Danaé, by François-Bernard Mâche, revealed much more invention in the juxtaposition of voices and percussion elements. We progress through a labyrinth of sound ranging from a slight murmur, a rustle of "golden rain" to a rumbling resonance "on bronze walls". In his work, the unusual finds a correspondence with mythology, and the audacious imagination passes through the prism of a fertile intellectuality.

                          Pierrette Mari, Les Lettres Françaises, 3 February 1971

Marcel Couraud, at the head of his ensemble of soloists, gave free rein to François-Bernard Mâche's Danaé , a work teeming with invention and wit.

                                  Antoine Goléa, Carrefour, 3 February 1971

FRANCOIS-BERNARD MACHE DANAE
Barclay ORTF 995013 Produced by ORTF

The composer, or rather the author, says: "Of the thousand possible interpretations of this story (Danae), I wanted to retain only the very distant echo of a golden rain on the bronze walls of a Greek sea, and I dedicated it to Iannis Xenakis". This rain is life, and the dialogue established between the twelve soloists of the ORTF choir conducted by Marcel Couraud and Jean-Pierre Drouet's percussion is a unique language that can only be understood with sensitivity.
The work is warm and so much more alive than if it had been produced electronically, with all that technology leaves to chance. Every phoneme fits into the score - because this is music too - and the captivity of the virgin Danae is no more than a pretext for expressing something more essential: a question that François-Bemard MACHE asks without answering, because the answer is of little importance to him.

                      Claude Dejacques, Arts et spectacle n°5, Lausanne 1971

Danaé is characterised above all by a kind of sonic primitivism, sometimes diaphanous and secretive, sometimes brutal and abrupt, which corresponds perfectly to the Greek source before the ages from which the work draws its legendary substance.

                                     A.Goléa, Hebdo-Témoignage chrétien, 14 October 1971

A disciple of Olivier Messiaen, Mâche has the dual distinction of knowing Greek and composing avant-garde music. And since examples are better than long speeches, [G.Léon] gave us two works by this musician, whose argument is borrowed from mythology: Safous Mélè and Danaé... On this theme Mâche wrote music that is essentially vocal, what we call phonemes, with a few touches of percussion instruments. There are no words, just a mixture of whispers, gasps and breaths on the edge of audibility, punctuated by bursts of voice, interjections and cries. At times, the long lines of the female voices sounded like out-of-tune violins, the rusty cries of seagulls or the threaded sounds that a damp finger makes around the rim of a crystal goblet. It was beautifully done, alternately tragic and incongruous. For example, once and for all, we would have to find a name for these skilful cacophonies other than music.

      L'auditeur inconnu, Le Télégramme de Brest et de l'Ouest, Morlaix 22 November 1971.

An avant-garde treatment of the voice...Danaé... A shower of gold on bronze walls, on the shores of a Greek sea. The extraordinary performance of the Ensemble vocal O.R.T.F. is without doubt unequalled, as is that of the percussionist.

                 Roland Chaillon, Journal des instituteurs, November 1971

At last, a recording by the soloists of the O.R.T.F. choirs conducted by their founder Marcel Couraud, in the most successful works written for them since Xenakis' Nuits... In contrast to Malec's refined rustling, F.-B. Mâche's work (1935) appears like a veritable wall of sound. The twelve voices are accompanied by a percussionist, in this case J.-P. Drouet; the work takes the human voice to its limits, and here Mâche shows the full measure of his talent, which is total imagination. The title, Danaé, refers to a Greek legend (Mâche is a professor of literature) and to the "very distant echo of a golden rain on the bronze walls of a Greek sea". The score is dedicated to Xenakis, whom the composer greatly admires.

                             P.Beusen, Clés pour la musique, Brussels, December 1971

However, continuing his "work of public cleansing of music" (to use Antoine Goléa's expression), the concert ended with Danaé, by the young French composer François-Bernard Mâche. First performed at the Persepolis Festival in August 1970, this work is a worthy descendant of Xenakis's Rechants and Nuits (to whom it is dedicated). Also written for twelve solo voices, the work differs from its predecessors in its use of percussion: each singer plays a small Nepalese drum with  whipping balls; at the same time, the influence of the East is felt through rhythms treated like Indian tâlas and through the systematic use of certain registers of the voice (the lower registers of the men in particular). But the novelty lies above all in the rhythmic use made of these voices: their use is of course instrumental (no text, just phonemes), but the usual "string" effects are supplemented by "percussion".

                  Gilbert-Jean Faccarello, Nouvelles littéraires 10 January 1972
                                  (Paris, Théâtre de la Ville, 11 January 1972)

In his Danaé, dedicated to Xenakis, François-Bernard Mâche treats this ensemble as an inexhaustible source of new sonorities, which he exploits with freedom and restraint: spitting, hissing, scathing or nasal emissions, evocations of water and wind, crowds or herds, cries and sighs that are doubled and dramatised by Jean-Pierre Drouet's percussion. Although not always free of the picturesque and theatrical, this work, which is its premiere, at its best moments (third and fourth parts) gives rise to a rich complex of kinetic impressions and coloured visions comparable to the effect of certain electro-acoustic creations.

                                            Anne Rey, Le Monde 13 January 1972

Twelve voices that speak to the heart

This new Couraud ensemble is truly international in terms of the quality and interest of its repertoire. The splendour of Gabrieli, the refinement of Ravel and Debussy, but also the most indisputable works of our contemporaries, Danaé by F-B. Mâche and Nuits by Xenakis. There's no cheating here, no amateur tinkering in search of scandal, just pure music that happily steers clear of the circus of avant-garde conventions.

                                   Jean Cotte, France-Soir, 13 January 19

Mâche had agreed to follow Pierre Schaeffer in his exploration of musique concrète, remembering his Synergies, Terre de Feu, Volumes produced at the ORTF's Groupe de Recherches Musicales. Today, the composer has been seduced by Xenakis's 'Nuits', Penderecki's 'Stabat Mater', 'Lux Aeterna' and Ligeti's 'Requiem', in which voices become percussion, cries, vocal clusters... Danae's argument is nothing more than the distant echo of golden rain on bronze walls, but the tenacity of the Greek oracles is reflected in the percussion's incessant determination not to let her sing in complete freedom. The voices are veritable instruments that can be struck, mixed, rubbed and coloured together, with string instrument effects of fantastically beautiful timbre, like pure sound objects, like diamonds.

                                            Pierre-E. BARBIER, Diapason, January 1972

This is a disappointing LP in the Inédits series, which consists entirely of trifles so far as I can see; they are beautifully performed and recorded trifles, however. The Mache is for twelve virtuoso singers and percussion, the Malec for voices alone, and both achieve an extraordinary range of effects between speech and singing, and combine these in a considerable variety of ways. Some - usually the more legato moments - are quite lovely as sound, and, as I've suggested, are sung with a refined skill that compels respect. But they remain moments of isolated aural sensation, never coalescing ingto a larger whole that might impart greater meaning to each moment. If this is true of Mache's work it is even more true of that by Malec, although the level of inventive ingenuity is admittedly very similar. In fact it is hard to distinguish one piece from the other, and it would be possible to take a fragment from one score and put it into the other without much fear of detection. Still, readers in vocal techniques should make a point of hearing these devoted performances .

                                        M.H. The Gramophone, January 1972

The best moments [of the] concert were due to François-Bernard Mâche and Xenakis. The men's lack of ease with the onomatopoeia that abounds in the former's rather long work is to be regretted.

                                        D.C., Scherzo n°10, February 1972

Echos. Académie du disque français.

...The French composers Jolivet, Ibert, Barraud, Charpentier, Françaix are fortunately included in this list, unfortunately tarnished by the names of Mâche, Malec and Ohana. There is no trace of Pierre Boulez's Domaines: how quickly the makers of his style, full of anti-musical pretensions, disappear.

                                      Le Haut-parleur HI-FI-Stéréo, March 1972

The Académie [du disque] has caught Ibert, Barraud, Jacques Charpentier, Mâche, Malec Ohana in its net, without anyone knowing what really won it over. It's a botched job, and from the audience's point of view, a shooting in the dark.

François-Bernard Mache's work is immediately attractive and engaging. The sort of horizontal continuity achieved by a refined play on repeated sounds, the strong punctuation provided by the percussion, the long, moving holds that stretch out like a scarf of clouds, all add to the beauty of a work that never leaves you indifferent, for behind the audacity of the sound technique employed, François-Bernard Mache remains faithful to an ever closer understanding of nature and mankind. In Dodecameron (a tribute to Boccaccio, of course, but also a tribute to the twelve voices), Ivo Malec is perhaps more direct than Mache, and less refined too... Mache seems to contemplate the reflection of things on his sound universe... The Twelve soloists of the ORTF choirs play off the difficulties accumulated in these two works with disconcerting ease. It's a dazzling performance.

                                                 Revue du Son n°228, April 1972

François-Bernard Mâche: Danaé for twelve mixed voices and percussion - A bold, difficult work, intended for the ensemble conducted by Couraud, who devotes himself to this kind of music with a constancy that makes him forget that there are others! But Danaé reveals an undeniable imagination, and the combination of voice and percussion is endearing.

                    Christian Tournel, Panorama instrumental, June 1972

From Aperghis to Mâche
Marcel Couraud's soloists gave a splendid concert of new works, with remarkable virtuosity, discipline and élan, in the concrete church of Champfleury with its sharp, conquering forms.
After the breakthrough made by Xenakis's Nuits and the somewhat painful works that followed, which crammed consonants, vowels, 'phonemes' and onomatopoeia into the voices, it seems that this vocal orchestration has really been assimilated and has become natural. Gilbert Amy's Récitatif, air et variation, F.B. Mâche's Danaé, with its superb percussion, and Luis de Pablo's Yo lo vi, perhaps to a lesser degree, all appear here as works of ample and free lyricism, free from serial tics, blossoming in space and time, and integrating the plastic resources of language with an inner music.

                                  Jacques Longchampt, Le Monde 7 August 1972

Inédits ORTF, Face 1 : François-Bernard Mâche, Danaé...

I'm interested in vocal research, but I don't see how these young people can turn it into an expression of literature. Last year, in our interview in October, I recommended a piece of documentation called "Phrases sur le souffle" by Claude Baillif [sic], whose Airs comprimés pour piano I preferred. These modulated cries should give us confidence in the capacities of the human gullet. The expressive power is not immediately apparent. Perhaps I prefer Claude Baillif because I took the time to listen to him better.

L.R. Education enfantine, December 1972

Having pushed musical research very far, particularly in the vocal field, F-B. Mâche knows how to use the voices, independently of each other, as solo instruments. The ensemble of soloists from the Chœurs, skilfully coached by Marcel Couraud, performs marvellously the thousand feats required by such a score.

                        G.Vendée, Le Courrier Musical de France n°37, 1972

Dedicated to Xenakis, Danaé by François-Bernard Mâche (born 1935) was conceived for the 1970 Shiraz-Persepolis Festival, where it was given its world premiere. A "creator gifted with a great imagination", François-Bernard Mâche took from mythology the memory of a golden rain striking a bronze tower on the shores of a Greek sea. The result is an extraordinary work whose score we would love to study, and in which the twelve solo singers are put to the test of all their technical abilities, even more so than in the Nuits du dédicataire. They are accompanied by percussion, remarkably played by Jean-Pierre Drouet.

                            Jean Maillard, L'éducation musicale, November 1973

Éditions musicales. Scores
...Using a more elaborate vocal technique, Danaé (1970) by François-Bernard Mâche is written for twelve solo voices and percussion and dedicated to Iannis Xenakis. The legend of Danaé is merely a pretext for a rather free composition that uses quarter tones in its central part. The composer does not use a traditional text but works from phonemes, whispered, spoken or shouted, in defined or undefined pitches. Each musician is also equipped with a damaru, a "small Nepalese drum with whipping balls". The percussion section is fairly discreet, with two congas and a set of timbres playing a significant role. In addition, the instrumental ensemble includes Chinese blocks, maracas, tam-tam and claves (Salabert editions).

                                               G.H. Scherzo, January 1974

...works by perfect craftsmen, in which vocal writing explodes in all registers, recovering phonemes and onomatopoeia to integrate them into a new sound expressivity, as coherent and meaningful as the old one: Danaé, by François-Bernard Mâche...
                                Roger Tellart, La Croix, 20 April 1978

Danaé (1970) by François-Bernard Mâche, which combines percussion (drums, gongs, glockenspiel etc.) with voices, is a fresco that captures other dimensions of the voice, primitive and magical, in a kind of cosmic embrace, the composer's fundamental dominant theme...

                                     Jacques Longchampt, Le Monde, 21 April 1978

It takes a great deal of imagination to find in François-Bernard Mâche's Danaé an image of the lady with the golden rain and the slightest hint of the subterfuge by which Zeus monetised his favours with the beautiful captive...

                                           Clarendon, Le Figaro, 20 April 1978

From the abundant repertoire he once put together for the ORTF, he has retained Danaé by François-Bernard Mâche...[this] piece is both serious and violent and shows a rich inventiveness.

                                     Claude Samuel, Le matin de Paris, 20 April 1978

Critics under the spell of Danaé
Noises and whispers, music of the inexpressible, the path of the mineral and the human in an instant reconciled, then abolished, then rediscovered, like on the shores of the sea, a face of sand.
Music of the earth and the wind, music without cries, but not without words, music of the voice and the breath, music of bronze and gold, of light and shadow, music of silence... This is Danaé....

Florence Mothe, Sud-Ouest, Bordeaux 19 May 1979

Musical theatre at the Mai de Bordeaux. Simple tenderness.

When he composed it in 1970, François-Bernard Mâche's (1935) score for choir and natural percussion - pebbles, bronze plates, spoons, whistles - entrusted to the singers had no narrative or dramatic elements: the title, Danaé, had been suggested to him by the rain effect produced by the crackling of the damarus, small drums with whipping balls that the performers manipulate at a given moment. It was collective poems written by schoolchildren who were made to listen to the work that inspired the two-part show: Rituel, for which François-Bernard Mâche composed an essentially rhythmic score, mixing shouting with the sound of cadenced steps, dancing and the shattering of metal plates being struck, and Danaé, which dramatises the original score.

                                               Gérard Condé, Le Monde 24 May 1979

In Danaé (1970), conducted by Roland Hayrabedian, the Musicatreize choir evoked the divine golden rain of the legend, in a suggestive vocal machine-gun fire supported by percussion...

             Christian Fruchart, Dernières Nouvelles d'Alsace 28 January 2004
Elisabeth Chojnacka, Françoise Kubler and Accroche-Note, the voices of Musicatreize and then the Percussions de Strasbourg were the experienced and efficient artisans of the François-Bernard Mâche day at Musica.
In the presence of the composer, of course, the event produced an elegant monograph on this musician born in 1935, now a member of the Institut, a scholar and musicologist who was also an academic in Strasbourg. His entire body of work, spanning more than thirty years, nourishes, through infinite reflections on the relationship between language and music, a contemporary meditation on the universal archetypes of culture, and on nature as a model.
And his original approach has always resulted in pages of the utmost finesse, in which sonority plays the leading role, but does not shy away from sometimes highly advanced technologies. These are always lively pieces, with a dramatic structure. Mâche takes us on astonishing planetary journeys, in which he draws on the deep historical and cultural strata of vanished civilisations as much as on the sounds of the natural elements...
For its part, Musicatreize, with the percussion of Christian Hamouy, gave its best with the already old (from 1970) Danaé, bringing down the fertile golden rain of the Greek myth. 

         Marc Munch, Dernières Nouvelles d'Alsace 23 September 2004