Le 1er juillet 2017
de 9h30 à 10h00
Le Patio (université de Strasbourg)
22 rue René Descartes, 67000 Strasbourg
salle 3202
Séance - Contemporary Musical Horizons (II)
Pré-acte / Acte
Auteur : Mylène Gioffredo
During the 20th and 21st centuries, art and popular occidental instrumental music departed from the romantic compositional paradigm. Both in North America and Europe, composers sought to broaden sonic possibilities, resulting in the abolition of the traditional hierarchy of parameters (such as pitches and rhythms) thus giving more space to those usually considered as secondary (timbre, extended techniques, etc.). Recognising this paradigm shift in the compositional thinking of this time is, however, not without consequences for our analytical methods: to what extent should we give importance to traditional parameters in our analysis? Which analytical tool could help us in discussing other sonic parameters ?
This paper addresses the question of the potentials and limits of both traditional and alternative tools for the analysis of those musics based on and not with Sound, through a study of Claude Vivier’s late Zipangu, for 13 solo string instruments. With the help of Vivier’s sketches, I demonstrate that the entire piece is based on variations of a principal melody and its harmonic field mainly through register expansion, harmonic compression, and rhythmic manipulation. Nevertheless, choosing to narrow the timbral possibilities to one instrumental family led Vivier to explore alternative ways to create variety in the texture through a wide range of extended techniques and the spatialisation of the orchestra into two groups. Applying spectromorphological analytical tools to the piece such as those developed for analysing electronic music allows us to reveal new ways of understanding Vivier’s Zipangu.
