Jean-Claude Risset

Jean-Claude Risset (1938–2016) was a French composer and computer music pioneer. A student of André Jolivet and later a collaborator with Max Mathews at Bell Laboratories, he made foundational contributions to the analysis and synthesis of musical timbre through computer music, including the famous Risset glissando — a continuously rising or falling tone that never actually changes pitch, exploiting auditory paradox. His compositions, created at IRCAM and across six decades of work, integrate his scientific research into musical form with results of remarkable sensory richness. He was one of the key figures linking the scientific and musical dimensions of electroacoustic practice.