Talks
My academic talks, forthcoming and past. "Lectures and conferences" are longer, "Papers at scientific meetings" are shorter. If you look for the texts of my classes and their related audio/video docs, those available are listed under "Varia".
The ethnography of enchanted listening
Keynote speech at the Jahrestagung der Österreichischen Gesellschaft für Musikwissenschaft 2020/2021 .
Due to COVID restrictions, the encounter will happen online, see https://linktr.ee/oegmw
Où s'esquisse la musique? Répétitions, prémonitions et vers d'oreille
Séminaire Esquisses, animé par Yolaine Escande et Denis Vidal. Lien de la visioconférence 14h-18h.
(with B. Brabec de Mori) Postures of listening and vocal agencies
Centre for Digital Music (C4DM), Queen Mary University of London, Singing Voice interest Group.
L'incroyable journal du Baron von Tasmovitch
First public discusson of the recently discovered travel diary hid by the Baron Herbert von Tasmovitch in a Styrian henhouse (ca. 1891). The diary narrates the musical journey of the baron through the Balkans, and the transformations of a song…
After the screening of Adela Peeva's documentary Whose is this Song at the MJC of Vileurbanne (organized by the CMTRA). 12/02/2020, 19h30.
Goûts et couleurs: un happening musical
Autour des musiciens Alexandros Markeas & Vincent Lê Quang, avec la participation de Pierre Senges (écrivain), David Christoffel (musicologue), Anne Montaron (productrice France Musique). Théâtre de Vanves, 13 décembre 2019, 21h30.
https://www.theatre-vanves.fr/spectacle/alexandros-markeas-vincent-le-quang/
Fantômes, diffuseurs, êtres sonores
Invited paper for the Séminaire d'anthropologie générale du LISST (Toulouse).
[Discussant at the] Anthropology of Music Masterclass on Acoustemology
Johannes Gutenberg Universität, Mainz, 26-29 of June 2019.
How is music "motivational" for armed violence? Comparing the playlist of a Norwegian terrorist with those of US soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan
Workshop Sound and Music in War from the Middle Ages to the Present, University of Fribourg, 13th of November 2018.
[Radio] "Le temps d’un bivouac" on France Inter
Invited by Daniel Fiévet for the radio program "Le temps d’un bivouac" on France Inter.
The interview surveyed some of my research topics as illustrations of an ethnomusicologist’s work.
[Radio] La tête au carré (le club)
Invited by Mathieu Vidard as part of his the radio program "La tête au carré (le club)" on France Inter. This short intervention was linked to my publication on "Super-Sounds" the previous day in The Conversation France.
Below is the excerpt of the program relevant to my work.
Incantations pathogènes et ondes orgasmiques : la musique est-elle bonne pour la santé ?
Seminar Anthropologie à Nanterre , 14th of November 2017, University of Nanterre room E105.
Chants tsiganes de Roumanie
Conference for music teachers organised by Philarmonie de Paris. 22/03/2017 9h30-12h30, lycée Hoche, Versailles.
Les musiciens professionels Roms de Roumanie
Maison de la musique, Nanterre, 10/03/2017 19:00.
Le ton des autres - « ce que la musique fait au temps »
avec Estelle Amy de la Bretèque (sur « la musicalité des émotions »)
Université de Lausanne (Institut des sciences sociales / laboratoire Théma). 27/05/2016, 18:00
Conférence suivie d’une performance musicale participative.
Réverb et écho dans les musiques de fête en Roumanie
For the seminar Geste, instrument de musique, technologie, coordinated by Baptiste Bacot and Nicolas Donin, EHESS (Raspail), 11/12/2015 15h-17h, salle 11.
Two educational conferences (festival d’Île de France)
Two educational conferences in secondary high schools (Champs sur Marne and St Denis), 21 and 25 / 09 / 2015.
These conferences about Roma musicians in Romania and Bulgaria were meant as an introduction for the concerts of Mahala Rai Banda and Ivo Papassov at the Festival d’Île de France 2015 edition.
Eugène Fleischmann Conference: the Roma in Europe
With Patrick Williams and Martin Oliveira. The conference will be held on 25/11/2015 at Musée du Quai Branly.
Acoustiques monacales : les ambiances sonores de la Trappe et leur captation filmique
With E. Amy de la Bretèque, Invited paper at the seminar « Regards croisés » sur l’ethnographie filmée et sonore de l’abbaye de la Trappe.
[Radio] Carnet de voyage on France Musique
Invited by Édouard Fouré Caul-Futy for his radio program Carnet de voyage on France Musique.
Broadcasted again on 18th of July 2015.
Perspectives anthropologiques sur les mises en scènes de la technique
Journée d'étude Valeur et fonction de la virtuosité technique des savoir-faire artisanaux et artistiques aux époques pré-industrielles (1/2). Organisée par Jean-Marie Guillouët. 5 juin 2014
9h - 18h, MSH Ange-Guépin (Nantes), salle de conférences.
Techniques d'enchantement de l'espace sonore selon les musiciens professionnels tsiganes de Roumanie
You think it's funny? Pride and irony amongst manele lovers in Bucharest
"I'm the big boss, clever and smart, rich like an emperor, women at my feet, my enemies die of jealousy!" In Romania, manele songs have been popular ever since the fall of the communist regime. They are sung by Roma professional musicians, mainly for non-Roma audiences. Manele lyrics often portray in a positive light debatable attitudes such as quick money making, lust and sensuality, violence or mafia arrangements. Romanian listeners tend to locate their musical features either towards "the East" or towards "the Gypsies". Not surprisingly, manele are rejected (in often violent terms) by a significant part of Romania's public opinion. The genre enjoys nevertheless a large and popular audience. It has been a steady feature of Romanian cultural landscape for more than twenty years now. An ethnographic approach reveals that manele lovers often have ambiguous relations with the literal contents of the songs. (Self-)irony and (self-)parody seem to play an important role in their interactions during live manele performances. I will illustrate this with examples based on my fieldwork in Bucharest in 2009-2010. The discussion will focus on the recognition of irony and its effects. Experiments in cognitive science and psycholinguistics have led to various descriptions of its inner workings. This kind of research may also be useful to understand how the music can "open up" verbal and non-verbal interactions for humorous, "light" and ironic understandings.
"Nu sunt vorbe la mişto (astea-s forţele NATO)". Ironie şi jocuri relaţionale în cântările de manele.
Invited lecture at the music conservatory of Cluj-Napoca (Romania), 18/10/2013.
Manelele sunt un gen muzical totodată popular şi controversat. Sunt asociate cu lucruri "imorale" printre care sensualitatea, îmbogătăţirea dubioasă, mândria, şmecheria sau violenţa. Sunt asociate şi cu populaţia Romă (cu toate că datele disponibile tind să infirme această ipoteză). Aceste legături par deseori evidente în cuvintele cântecelor şi în iconografia înregistrărilor comercializate. Aspectele sonore ale manelelor şi interacţiile ascultătorilor la petreceri sunt însă rareori luate în considerare de comentatori.
Analiza propusă aici porneşte de la această perspectivă inversă. Voi prezenta observaţii "de teren" făcute în Bucureşti în anii 2009-10, înspecial la cântările de manele "pe viu" (petreceri, restaurante, cluburi). Descrierea modurilor de cântare şi de interacţie va aduce în discuţie noţiunile de (auto-)ironie şi de libertate. Acestea sunt factori importanţi în aprecierea amatorilor de manele. Pe lângă plăcerea muzicală "imediată" trăită de ascultători, ele cristalizează şi o problematică mai largă, legată de incertitudinile care parcurg societatea română în urma schimbării de regim politic şi economic.
Morale et cognition: l'épreuve du terrain
Various contributions during this one week colloquim at the Centre culturel international de Cerisy, 4-11/09/2013.
Paper on cunning and slyness as emotional and moral devices in Romanian party music.
With Monica Heintz: chair/discussant for the panel "Les biais dans la recherche sur la morale".
Ruse musicale et éthique de la créativité selon les lăutari tsiganes de Roumanie
Musée du quai Branly, during the special week-end "L'ethnologie va vous surprendre". 30/06/2013
Click here for the complete program of the event.
The ontology of musical experience: an anthropological approach
Most models of musical interaction regard music as a way of circulating information amongst humans. But ethnographic data from various parts of the world (including Europe) indicates that listeners' experience of music frequently involves non-human agencies. These agents may be gods, spirits or animals, but also a range of sonic characters whose ontological status is less clear: entities which "move", "shine", have "color" or “taste”, display "moral" attributes, and sometimes "dialogue" with one another. How should such intuitions be considered in musical analysis? Are they metaphors, poetic verbalizations, or core phenomena which constitute musical experience? After outlining a few ethnographic examples, I will present a tentative theoretical approach.
Sonic beings? The ontologies of musical agency
Panel at EASA 2012, Paris Ouest University.
Convenors: Victor A. Stoichiţă / Bernd Brabec de Mori (University of Graz, Phonogrammarchiv Vienna)
Short abstract
This panel brings together ethnographic accounts of "human" and "nonhuman" interactions in sonic constructions such as music. The aim is to compare different ontologies of the sound realm, and see whether it can host particular forms of agency, which are not encountered otherwise.
Long abstract
Anthropologists know well that music is an efficient ingredient in various kinds of interactions. It has been described as an enhancer of emotions, of specific forms of consciousness, of social and personal identities. Its presence is also mandatory in many rituals around the world. Social sciences usually assume that this efficiency is merely a transformation of human agencies. In this view, music is just another way for humans to relate, ultimately, to each other. However, practitioners and audiences often have different accounts.
Their musical experiences seem populated by "human" but also "nonhuman" entities: gods, spirits, animals, and a range of other sonic characters whose ontological status is uncertain, but which seem, at times, to have an agency of their own. In this view, music is not just a human business but an environment which allows interactions between different layers of reality and different kinds of beings.
What are the ontologies of sound underlying these interactions? Are there, for example, social agents which can only be encountered in sound? Can music host relations which would be impossible otherwise? General frameworks have been proposed to rethink agency beyond divides such as "nature-culture" or "human-nonhuman" (Gell, Latour, Descola, Viveiros de Castro). Can these paradigms account for musical interactions?
Details of the panel and accepted papers: http://www.nomadit.co.uk/easa/easa2012/panels.php5?PanelID=1318
Feel free to email me for any inquiry on this topic.
Enchanted sounds, emotions of power: a study of musical agency in popular feasts in Romania
Paper at the Crossroads 2012 conference, Sorbonne nouvelle (Paris), 2-6th July.
Abstract
In Romania, manele have been a popular and controversial musical genre for the past 20 years. They are linked to several "immoral" things like sensuality, quick money making, pride, ambition and violence. Such arguments are typically based on the lyrics of the songs and on the iconography of recorded media. They often ignore the musical aspects and the pragmatic features of live manele performances.
This paper will start from the reverse perspective, focusing on the accompaniment of the voice, the sound effects, and the instrumental choruses. I will consider primarily performances by professional musicians in live settings, based on fieldwork in Bucharest during 2009-10. I will describe various distributions of agency in the sound realm, and analize the particular intersection of power, freedom and (self-)irony, which many manele lovers seem to enjoy.
Ça vous fait rire? Fierté et dérision chez les amateurs de manele à Bucarest
Paper at the annual meeting of the Société Française d'Ethnomusicologie, Eymoutiers.
Résumé
« Je suis le grand boss, riche comme un empereur, débrouillard, les femmes à mes pieds, et que mes ennemis crèvent ! » En Roumanie, les manele sont un genre lyrique devenu populaire depuis la chute du régime communiste. Rarement un style musical aura suscité autant de controverses dans le pays. Chantées par des musiciens professionnels tsiganes (les lăutari) dans diverses fêtes populaires, et faisant l'objet d'une abondante production discographique, ces chansons évoquent souvent sous un jour favorable l'argent facile, la sensualité, la violence et les entreprises mafieuses. Un certain nombre de traits proprement sonores les situent du côté d'un „Orient” à la fois exotique et dangereusement endogène. Sans surprise, les manele sont villipendées par un pan important de l'opinion publique roumaine.
Cela ne les empêche pourtant pas de trouver un large public, et de perdurer dans le paysage musical roumain depuis plus de vingt ans. L'ethnographie des situations où les manele sont jouées montre que leurs amateurs entretiennent des rapports souvent ambigus avec les contenus explicites de ces chansons. L'(auto-)ironie et l'(auto-)parodie poignent fréquemment dans les commentaires et les comportements des mélomanes. J'en donnerai quelques exemples, à partir de mes recherches menées à Bucarest en 2009-2010. Au travers des manele, je proposerai quelques réflexions sur la manière dont la musique, en tant que construction sonore, peut aviver (ou inhiber) l'engagement émotionnel et le sens de l'humour.
L'enchantement musical et ses acteurs
Laboratoire d'ethnologie et sociologie comparative (LESC), MAE, Nanterre University,
Résumé
Dans cette séance je propose de discuter autour de deux hypothèses.
La première, qui rejoint une intuition courante dans différentes sociétés, est que les structures sonores peuvent être des agents à parts entières au même titre que les humains qui les produisent ou les perçoivent. Cette « qualité d'agent » est susceptible de se manifester de différentes manières dans les interactions sociales. Je tenterai d'illustrer quelques recoupements et contrastes entre les logiques à l'oeuvre dans plusieurs traditions musicales, afin de suggérer ce que l'anthropologie gagne à décrire en détail ces processus.
Une autre hypothèse, liée à la précédente, est que l'expérience musicale repose en premier lieu sur un mode d'écoute. Celui-ci se démarque des autres modes possibles par les propriétés ontologiques que les sons y développent. Couleurs, formes, textures, mouvements, « caractères » émotionnels ou moraux, personnifications en bonne et due forme, émergent dans l'écoute musicale et la caractérisent, aussi bien par rapport à la perception de l'environnement écologique que par rapport à la communication linguistique. La capacité de faire exister de tels êtres sonores, et d'interagir avec eux, pourrait constituer le coeur de ce que nous nommons musique.
Music as enchantment of place in Romanian popular parties
Milson conference, CNRS/FMSH.
Abstract
In Romania professional Roma musicians (lăutari) are often hired for popular parties such as weddings, christenings, village fairs or political meetings. The music they perform on such occasions is rarely the focus of the participants. To most of them, it is rather an environment in which they pursue particular interactions. This is particularly true since the bands have started to perform amplified. Not only is their sonic outreach wider, but also specific electronic effects enable them to re-spatialize the sounds. How does their musical space/time interact with the space/time of the party? What experience of place does this combination foster? To address such questions, I will focus on the « edge » between musical and ecological perception, at in- and outdoors live events.
« Comme un boyard dans son hélicoptère ». Orgueil, morale et ironie dans les musiques de fête en Roumanie
Invited paper at the workshop « Morale et Cognition: les émotions ». Nanterre University, MAE, 3rd floor, room 308. Organized by Monica Heintz and Isabelle Rivoal.
Who's the big boss? Musical agency in live manele performances.
Keynote paper at the IX edition of the Forum Romania. Vienna University / Austrian Academy of Sciences. 6-9 October 2011.
Abstract
In Romania, manele have been a popular and controversial musical genre for the past 20 years. They are linked to several "immoral" things like sensuality, quick money making, pride, ambition and violence. Some Romanians also link them to low education status and Gypsy ethnicity (although most manele lovers are ethnic Romanians). Such arguments are typically based on the lyrics of the songs and on the iconography of recorded media. They often ignore the musical aspects and the pragmatic features of live manele performances.
This paper will start from the reverse perspective, focusing on the accompaniment of the voice, the sound effects, and the instrumental choruses. I will consider primarily performances by professional musicians in live settings, based on fieldwork in Bucharest during 2009-10. In such events, the music is open to various distributions of social agency. These are continually reshaped through interactions between audiences and musicians. I will describe a particular intersection of power, freedom and (self-)irony, which seems to be a key feature in many manele performances.
“Vocal instruments” and other sonic artefacts in the performances of Gypsy singers in Romania
ICTM 2011 (World conference). In panel "Speak, shout, weep, sing. The voice and the boundaries of music", convened by Victor A. Stoichiţă.
Abstract
In Romania, Gypsies are famous for their mastery of specific voice skills. These range from complex melismatic singing to rhythmic patterns of onomatopea. The overall characteristic of these distinctive features is an instrumentalisation of the voice. Between two words or even two syllables, the singer may use these techniques to embark his audience for a complex musical journey, well beyond the semantic and melodic frames of the song. Drawing on my work with both professional and amateur Gypsy singers, I will examine these practices in light of their relations with other instruments used during the performance. I will focus on the creative uses of the microphone and sound effects by modern Gypsy singers, to enhance these vocal older techniques.
De la structure à la fantaisie, selon les musiciens professionnels tsiganes de Roumanie
Invited lecture at the seminar "Modélisation des savoirs musicaux relevant de l'oralité", organised by March Chemillier at the E.H.E.S.S., Paris.
This lecture was filmed and the videos are available on the seminar's web page.
Eastern dreams and sonic heteropia. The amplified worlds of Romanian manele.
SIEF 2011, Lisbon 13-19 April. In panel "Sound, space and memory: ways of emotionalizing and instrumentalizing sound", convened by Eckehard Pistrick and Cyril Isniard.
Chants tsiganes de Roumanie, la fantaisie musicale au coeur d'un ouvrage pédagogique.
Symposium Music Orality Roots Europe (MORE), Cité de la Musique.
Să fructifici valoarea sunetului. Inteligenţa, emoţii şi şmecherie în gândriea lăutarilor.
Opening conference of the congress of the Romanian Society for Cultural Anthropology (SACR), Bucharest.
Abstract
În România, lăutarii formează o categorie distinctă de muzicieni. De obicei sunt de origine romă şi prestează la cerere în cadrul unor evenimente ca nunţi, botezuri şi târguri politice. Lăutarii autendinţa să accentueze latura profesională a activităţii lor, de multe ori prezentând-o ca pe unmeşteşug care naşte emoţii. A fi “deştept”, “cioran” sau “şmecher” sunt concepte esenţiale înmodul lor de a înţelege eficacitatea muzicii. Extinzându-se de la atitudini globale până la trăsături muzicale specifice, aceste noţiuni conturează o paradigmă unde muzica este mai mult o“tehnologie de incântare” decât o formă de comunicare. Pornind de la date etnografice, voiîncerca să precizez felul în care lăutarii înţeleg relaţia între inteligenţă, plăcere şi emoţii.
Technologies of musical enchantment: understanding manele in neo-liberal Romania
EASA 2010, Maynooth. In workshop "Crises, imagination, and beyond: bringing aesthetics back into the anthropology of (popular) music", convened by Markus Verne and Hauke Dorsch.
Abstract
In Romania, the manele have been a popular and controversial musical genre for the last 20 years. They are linked to several "immoral" things like sensuality, quick money making, pride, ambition and violence. They are also linked with low education status and Gypsy ethnicity (although most manele lovers are Romanians). Such arguments are typically based on the lyrics of the songs, and the iconography of the recorded media. This paper will focus on the instrumental aspects of the manele: accompaniment of the voice, choruses, instrumental tunes. It will consider primarily their performance by professional musicians in live settings, such as weddings, christenings and political meetings.
I will argue that music, and especially manele, are best studied as "technologies of enchantment", in a theoretical framework adapted from A. Gell's proposals. I will focus on some enchantment techniques used in manele music, and on the specific emotions they allow the listeners to embody.
Fabricants d'émotion. Musique et malice dans un village tsigane de Roumanie.
Musée du Quai Branly, salon de lecture Jacques Kerchache.
Fabricanţi de emoţie : despre şmecherie şi creativitate în gândirea lăutarilor.
Muzeul Ţăranului Român, Bucharest, 21/04/10.
with Estelle Amy de la Bretèque (CNRS – CREM/LESC) : “Musics of the new times. Romanian manele and Armenian rabiz as icons of post-communist changes”
The Balkans and the Caucasus. Parallel processes in the historical destiny, mentality, culture, and future trends on the opposite sides of the Black Sea,New Europe College, Bucharest.
Abstract
In this joint presentation we propose to compare two musical genres, from two countries, one on each side of the Black Sea. Both genres are linked with post-communist times, deep changes in society, and suggest for local observers an idea of « new times ». In both of them, local observers feel strong national and/or ethnic definitions (seeing them either as « local » products or as « exotic » borrowings). Both of them are at the same time popular, and supposed to be the music of a small minority of newly enriched people. Both genres raise strong controversies amongst local politicians and intellectuals, who tend to argue against their (allegedly) perverted moral values, and to worry about the social impact of these musics. We believe that both these musical genres crystallize more than just aesthetic taste. This is why we want to describe in a comparative manner some key features of the Romanian manele and the Armenian rabiz.
After a short common introduction, our comparison will be structured in two papers. One of them will deal with the rabiz (Estelle Amy de la Bretèque, CNRS/Paris) and the other with the manele (Victor A. Stoichiţă, NEC/Bucarest). Both of them will cover the same topics, some of which will reveal similarities (such as the ones mentioned above), while some others will show contrastive features (such as the ethnic definitions and the ideologies of power which underly each genre). Drawing on textual, iconographic and musical analyses, we will try to understand how manele and rabiz became icons of deep changes on each side of the Black Sea.
Singing the Bakchich: The Aesthetics of Prestige in the Practice of Gypsy Popular Musicians
Cultures of Indebtedness: Displacements of Value in Eastern Europe, New Europe College, Bucharest.
Abstract
In Romania, the lăutari form a distinct category of musicians. They play on command, in events such as weddings, christenings, political fairs, pubs and restaurants, while also recording CDs and video clips. They tend to insist on the professional aspects of their practice, often presenting themselves as craftsmen. What is the ethical and economical model of these professional musicians ? How do they understand the link between musical emotions and money making ? To address these questions, I will focus on the payment through "bakchich" (bacşiş, şpagă), which gives individual listeners the opportunity to inflect the music played by the lăutari in collective settings.
“Gypsy music” lectures
Cité de la musique (Paris). Three conferences on Gypsy music for the general public: virtuoso brass bands from Moldavia / new amplified musics / portrait of a Gypsy singer. 24/11, 1/12, 8/12.
Fieldwork in ethnomusicology
Faculty of Humanities of the Charles University, Prague. Two-day workshop on fieldwork interactions in ethnomusicological research.
"Intelligent thieves". The ethics of musical creativity according to Gypsy professional musicans.
International conference on Author’s rights and oral traditions: customs, law and ethics, Nuoro (Sardegna/Italy).
Autour de la création musicale collective
Annual meeting of the French Society for Ethnomusicology.
"Si Brăiloiu avait su… La ruse, les Tsiganes et le diable dans le folklore roumain"
Ethnography museum of Geneve (Switzerland).
Abstract
Comment la morale influence-t-elle les discours sur le folklore? Où passe la démarcation entre variation, raffinement et perversion? Pourquoi les paysans roumains se laissent-ils émouvoir par des musiciens tsiganes qu'ils ne cessent pourtant de critiquer? Ce sont quelques questions auxquelles Victor A. Stoichita, anthropologue, tentera de répondre, à partir des travaux de Constantin Brailoiu (l'un des premiers ethnomusicologues roumains) et d'observations ethnographiques récentes.
[Radio] Des oreilles avec des trous…(dedans)
Invited by the radio program "Des oreilles avec des trous... (dedans)" on Radio Libertaire and Radio Bazarnaom.
In this 145th edition of the program, we talked about the how Roma professional musicians in Romania discuss matters of musical "cunning" and "slyness".
Musical transcription in ethnomusicology
Faculty of Humanities of the Charles University, Prague. Two-day workshop on the visualisation of musical structures.
Pièges mélodiques. Sur la virtuosité musicale et tissée
Workshop "Virtuosité ou les sublimes aventures de la technique", Musée du Quai Branly.
Résumé
Je proposerai une comparaison entre la virtuosité des musiciens professionnels moldaves et un certain type de tissage, produit dans le même région. Le rapprochement s’appuiera sur plusieurs caractéristiques de cette musique et de ces tissus particuliers:
- l’une comme les autres sont produits par des spécialistes, afin d’être vendus;
- ces spécialistes maîtrisent des techniques particulières, dont la compréhension même échappe à leurs clients;
- la composition des objets (tissus d’une part, performances musicales de l’autre) est modulaire et modulable; elle repose sur de petits motifs, combinés de diverses manières;
- par leurs propriétés structurelles, ces agencements sont des « pièges à pensée » (au sens de Gell 1998: 66-94).
Les musiciens professionnels sont explicites: construire de tels pièges, dans lesquels l’écoute s’engage puis se perd, est l’essence de la virtuosité (virtuozitate). Celle-ci est synonyme de ruse (şmecherie) et de malice (ciorănie), termes plus usuels, d’ailleurs, dans leur vocabulaire.
Les tisus, eux, ne sont pas dits virtuoses (ni les tisserandes rusées). Ils sont pourtant conçus, à l’instar des mélodies, pour perdre le regard et troubler la perception. Si la musique permet la virtuosité alors que cette notion ne fait pas sens pour le tissage, est-ce le fait des objets et de leur mode de production, ou bien est-ce le fruit d’une différence de perspectives sur la technique et les motivations qui la sous-tendent?
Standing still, moving others. A look at visible professionalism in Romania
International Council for Traditional Music (World conference), Wien. In panel "Reflections on posture and attitude in music and dance performance", convened by Christine Guillebaud and Victor A. Stoichiţă.
Abstract
In central Moldavia (Romania), professional musicians play one of the fastest and liveliest dance music of the Balkans region. However, they hardly move to it (and it does not seem to move them either). They perform in brass bands or in smaller amplified ensembles. Playing may require energic and/or fast movements but the musicians do not get involved physically in the music itself: they do not dance, nor bounce, nor even tap one foot to the beat. Their attitude thus contrasts with that of the dancers, who tend to favor leaps, fast spinning around and energetic stamping. This "postural segregation" is constructed in a deliberate manner. I will try to point what particular conception of the feast and merry-making it implies.
Musique et technique
Annual meeting of the French Society for Ethnomusicology.
2007-08 Lectures on virtuosity in traditional music.
University Paris VIII (seven lectures between 2007 and 2008).
Pixels sonores et musiques du monde: les ethnomusicologues face aux échantillonneurs
Pixel workshop, Musée du Quai Branly, Paris.
Résumé
Le terme « échantillon » (sample en anglais) se présente comme un analogue du « pixel », pour le traitement numérique des signaux sonores et, au-delà, de la musique. Il est cependant plus polysémique, puisqu’il peut désigner aussi bien une unité minimale d’information, qu’une séquence sonore plus ou moins longue (composée dans ce cas de milliers d’unités minimales). La numérisation des « musiques du monde » a suscité plusieurs réflexions qui pointent, précisément, cette notion, pour tenter de penser l’articulation entre « haute fidélité » et « authenticité ».
Indexing and comparing audio/video sequences
International Council for Traditional Music, meeting of the study group on ethnochoreology, Cluj (Romania).
Ruser et apprendre
Conférence "Musique et apprentissage", IRCAM, Paris.
Musique et artefacts
Annual meeting of the French Society for Ethnomusicology.
Music in progress
Conférence "Musique et mémoire" École supérieure de physique et de chimie industrielles (ESPCI), Paris.
Gypsiness, Music and Power: Romanian Feasts as Carnivals
Symposium on Gypsy Music, University of Glasgow.
Romany Music: What it Is, How we Approach it, What We Can Say About it
Round table at the International Council for Traditional Music (World Conference), Sheffield. Convened by Speranţa Rădulescu.
Qu’est-ce qu’une mélodie ? Identité, différence et créativité dans un répertoire de musiciens professionnels (Zece Prăjini – Roumanie).
University Paul Valéry, Montpellier.
A Matter of Attitude : Self-Definition of Identity in a Village of Gypsy Professional Musicians (Zece Prăjini – Romania)
Third meeting of the Study Group "Music and Minorities" of the International Council for Traditional Music, Roč (Croatia).
Musique et textiles: esthétiques croisées dans les villages roumains
University Paul Valéry, Montpellier
Identités ethno-musicales dans un village de lăutari Tsiganes (Zece Prăjini – Roumanie).
University Paul Valéry, Montpellier.
2001-03 Entre science et poésie: la musique populaire vue par Béla Bartók
Series of lectures on this topic at the Universities of Tours (2001, 2002), Lille (2002), Saint-Denis (2003). Part of the students' training for the CAPES (Teacher's diploma).