Papers at scientific meetings

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.

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.

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".

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. 

 

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Invited paper at the workshop « Morale et Cognition: les émotions ». Nanterre University, MAE, 3rd floor, room 308. Organized by Monica Heintz and Isabelle Rivoal.

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.

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.

Symposium Music Orality Roots Europe (MORE), Cité de la Musique.

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.

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.

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.

International conference on Author’s rights and oral traditions: customs, law and ethics, Nuoro (Sardegna/Italy).

Annual meeting of the French Society for Ethnomusicology.

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?

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.

Annual meeting of the French Society for Ethnomusicology.

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 ».

International Council for Traditional Music, meeting of the study group on ethnochoreology, Cluj (Romania).

Conférence "Musique et apprentissage", IRCAM, Paris.

Annual meeting of the French Society for Ethnomusicology.

Conférence "Musique et mémoire" École supérieure de physique et de chimie industrielles (ESPCI), Paris.

Symposium on Gypsy Music, University of Glasgow.

Round table at the International Council for Traditional Music (World Conference), Sheffield. Convened by Speranţa Rădulescu.

Third meeting of the Study Group "Music and Minorities" of the International Council for Traditional Music, Roč (Croatia).