Trembay studied at the conservatories of Québec in Montréal and Paris (1954–61), where his teachers included Olivier Messiaen (analysis), Andrée Vaurabourg-Honegger (counterpoint), Yvonne Loriod (piano), and Maurice Martenot (inventor of the ondes Martenot).^[1][2] He also attended Stockhausen's summer courses at Darmstadt, where he became interested in electro-acoustic techniques.^[3]

Tremblay returned to Quebec in 1961. He taught musical analysis at the Centre d'arts Orford [fr] and at the Conservatoire de musique du Québec in Quebec City.^[3] Beginning in 1962, and for many years, he taught composition at the Conservatoire de musique du Québec à Montréal. Among his pupils are Serge Arcuri [fr], Raynald Arseneault, Yves Daoust, François Dompierre, Marc Hyland, Ramon Lazkano, Robin Minard, Éric Morin, Silvio Palmieri, Micheline Coulombe Saint-Marcoux, Isabelle Panneton [fr], André Villeneuve, Claude Vivier, and Wolf Edwards.^[4]

Early in his career he performed as a specialist on the ondes Martenot.^[5]

In 1991, he was made an Officer of the National Order of Quebec.

Tremblay died August 4, 2017, at Côte-des-Neiges–Notre-Dame-de-Grâce.^[2]

• Mobile, for violin and piano (1962)
• Champs I, for piano and 2 percussionists (1965)
• Cantique de durées, for seven groups of instruments (1960)
• Sonorisation du Pavillon du Québec, 24-channel electronic music (1967)
• Souffles (Champs II), for 2 flutes, oboe, clarinet, horn, 2 trumpets, 2 trombones, piano, 2 percussionists, and contrabass (1968)
• Vers (Champs III), for 2 flutes, clarinet, trumpet, horn, 3 percussionists, 3 violins, and contrabass (1969)
• Jeux de solstices, for orchestra (1974)
• Oralléluiants, for soprano, bass clarinet, horn, 2 percussionists, and 3 contrabasses (1975)
• Fleuves, for piano, percussion, and orchestra (1976)
• Vers le soleil, for orchestra (1978)
• Le Signe du lion, for horn and tam-tam (1981)
• Triojubilus "À Raphaël", for flute, harp, and cowbells (1985)
• Les Vêpres de la Vierge, for soprano and orchestra (1986)
• Musique du feu, for piano and orchestra (1991)
• L'arbre de Borobudur, for horn, 2 harps, double bass, ondes Martenot, 2 percussionists, and gamelan ensemble (1994)
• L'espace du coeur (Miron-Machaut), for mixed voices and percussion (1997)
• Les pierres crieront, for cello and large orchestra (1998)
• A quelle heure commence le temps?, for baritone, percussion, piano, and orchestra (1999)
• L'appel de Kondiaronk: symphonie portuaire, environmental work for battle sirens and 2 locomotives (2000)
• String Quartet 'Croissant' (2001)
• En partage (Concerto), for viola and orchestra (2002)
• L'eau qui danse, la pomme qui chante et l'oiseau qui dit la vérité, Opéra féerie based on "The Dancing Water, the Singing Apple, and the Speaking Bird" (2009)

• 1968. "Note pour Cantique de durées." Revue d'esthetique 21, nos. 2–4 ("Musiques nouvelles"): 51–58.

Sources

• Beck, Gordon. 2017. "Composer Gilles Tremblay Has Died at 85". Montreal Gazette (29 July; accessed 8 July 2019).
• Huss, Christophe. 2017. "Gilles Tremblay, la mort du patriarche". Le Devoir (31 July; accessed 8 July 2019).
• Lefebvre, Marie-Thérèse. 2018. "Gilles Tremblay". Société de musique contemporaine du Québec (18 January; accessed 8 July 2019).
• Mather, Bruce. 2001. "Gilles Tremblay". The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, second edition, edited by Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell. London: Macmillan Publishers.
• Orton, Richard, and Hugh Davies. 2001. "Ondes martenot". The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, second edition, edited by Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell. London: Macmillan Publishers.
• Peyser, Joan. 1976. Boulez: Composer, Conductor, Enigma. New York: Schirmer Books. ISBN 0-02-871700-7; London: Cassell. ISBN 0-304-29901-4
• Villeneuve, André. 2001. "Souffles (Champs II, the Mobile, and the Musical Language of Gilles Tremblay." Ex tempore 10, no. 2 (Spring–Summer): 58–147.

• Auzolle, Cécile. « De la résurgence du merveilleux : l'exemple de L'Eau qui danse, la Pomme qui chante et l'Oiseau qui dit la vérité, un opéra de Gilles Tremblay et Pierre Morency. » Circuit, volume 20, numéro 3, 2010, p. 9–42. doi:10.7202/044859ar

• "Gilles Tremblay" by Robert Richard (2006); "Gilles Tremblay" by Alexis Luko, Rachelle Taylor, Hélène Plouffe (2008) The Canadian Encyclopedia
• "Gilles Tremblay", The Living Composers Project