Volume 16, numéro 2, 1996

EN :

A detailed analysis of the spectra and frequencies of tones produced on metallophones in a Balinese orchestra clarifies a number of issues that arise in studying timbre and tuning. Among these are the relative importance of accuracy and completeness of measurements, the relevance of acoustical description to musical perception and style, the appropriateness of statistical generalizations and numerical formulations to musical practice and theory, and the possibility of bi-musical responses to divergent tuning systems. Byproducts of the investigation include a proposed basis for inter-cultural ear training and a novel formulation of the unison, octave, and other intervals (including wide and narrow variants), as well as traditional scales and interval collections that have existed side-by-side in widely varying forms within individual cultures.

FR :

L’article présente certains aspects de notre thèse de doctorat intitulée « An Introduction to the Early Works of György Ligeti ». Il propose une critique de deux idées reçues et largement répandues dans la littérature sur le musique de ce compositeur : (1) en arrivant en Europe de l’Ouest en décembre 1956, Ligeti se serait départi de tout le bagage technique et stylistique qu’il avait acquis auparavant en Hongrie ; (2) avant de passer à l’Ouest, il n’aurait eu presque aucune connaissance de l’avant-garde musicale de l’Europe de l’Ouest.

EN :

From his earliest works, Xenakis has conceived his music in terms of textures and sound masses. The analytical approach introduced here for a study of the recent string quartet, Tetras, takes such sonic entities as its point of departure. The inside-time structure is described in terms of the temporal succession of these entities and the outside-time relationships established between them by means of a whole range of parametrical entities. While the sonic and parametrical entities need to be specified for each piece, it is shown that this approach can be profitably applied to the complete Xenakis oeuvre.

EN :

Ministry statements regarding music programming tend to be couched either in vague generalities or as conflicting directives for implementation. The aesthetic imagination of students suffers the first loss in school boards that elect to place the responsibility for music in the hands of untrained teachers. This paper traces imagination as emanating from an inextricable combination of impression, sensual perception, ideas, and intentional expression. Imagination itself is examined here first, as heightened perception, and second, as phenomena "becoming." As expression must have substantive material for its realization, music education should include the skills both of performance and of literacy. Anything less denies students, especially the disadvantaged, "voice" and exacerbates the present state of cultural inequality.