Documents found
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717.More information
The Idealist musical tradition associates the act of listening to and immersion into the singular univers of musical works, each conceived as a monad in which every element of reality has its own representation: listening means diving in a form of interiority that has is a world in itself. The consequence of such a listening habit is a relative deafness to one's immediate environment. Certain actual forms of auditive addiction, drawing on consumerist productivity, push this deafness to caricature like levels. This might explain why so many present artists, especially those working on sonic and acoustic ecologies, tend to reverse perspectives and to think the act of listening as a way to interact with the world. This often happens through the disappearance of the work while the process itself takes precedence, and by refocusing one's action on the very act of listening. This reversal is not only an aesthetic choice, it also is a political one: it puts forth the idea that listening is a construction of commonness.
Keywords: écoute musicale, commun(s), milieu sonore, autonomie, écologie sonore, Musical Listening, Commonness, Sound Milieu, Autonomy, Sound Ecology
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718.More information
Throughout his career, Alfredo Casella (1883-1947) seemed to make a particular case of French master Claude Debussy. During his training period in France (1896-1915), Debussy was a major source of inspiration to the young composer seeking his own personal style. Back in Italy, Casella encouraged young composers to inspire themselves of European techniques, including those of Debussy, to modernize the Italian instrumental music. However, with the promotion of the Italian musical past, aiming the creation of a national art, Casella gradually adopted a different position, event diametrically opposed, regarding Debussy's music. Then the French composer is not considered as a model anymore, nor even, a “dream for the future generations,” but rather, according to Casella, the author of a language entirely incompatible with “the profoundly Italian spirit.” We propose a critical, historical and aesthetical study of Casella's works from 1902 to 1930. We shall try establishing a methodological link between the assertions and opinions in Casella's writings and their application in his musical works, by the means of the argumentation developed by the musician.
Keywords: Casella, Debussy, impressionnisme, influence, Italie, Casella, Debussy, Impressionnism, influence, Italy
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719.More information
How can we consider, today, the role of the orchestra conductor? What can be said of this new and surprising musical “gestuality,” and in what way does this new visibility announce a displacement of modern authority, traditionally grounded on the phenomenality of sound (the music heard), and that seems now more concerned with the sonic malaise contained in the written score? Using as a starting point a listening experience that occurred during a concert in July 2004, this article attempts to analyse the différend that mediates the conductor's vision and the audience's listening. If the conductor still tries to present himself as a transmitter (since he re-conducts), his transmission, however, seems negative, passive, cut from all passage into action. Maybe this transmission is only possible in a power sphere that is important to interrogate, at a time when electroacoustic techniques seem to have annulled the blurring that makes, nonetheless, the fortune of the live concert.
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720.More information
The accordion first appeared in Quebec some 15 years after its invention in Vienna in 1829. The German diatonic model, or melodeon, became popular through catalogue sales at the end of the 19th century. This model inspired Odilion Gagné, a carpenter and Quebec City musician, to make his first diatonic accordion in 1895. His descendants continued to produce the Quebec “Gagné” brand until the 1950s, when the Messervier family's instruments became the industry standard. During the folk music revival of the 1970s, Gilles Paré, Robert Boutet and Clement Breton, following in Messervier's footsteps, began handcrafting accordions. Since folk artisans have no formal training to guide them, I was interested in discovering how the accordion maker learns his trade, and what factors allow him to develop the necessary expertise. His frame of reference includes the cultural, social, professional or other prerequisites which allow the accordion maker to follow his calling. Once he has acquired these skills, he can proceed to develop his abilities by multiple forms of communication: visual, gestural, musical, or written.