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Cet article analyse la nouvelle collaboration entre la compositrice et pionnière de musique électronique, Éliane Radigue, et le Quatuor Bozzini. Débutant vers la fin des années 1960, la carrière d’Éliane Radigue se caractérise par de très longues oeuvres de musique électronique qui semblent de prime abord ne pas changer, et dans lesquelles les micro-oscillations naturelles entre les hauteurs remplacent la rythmique traditionnelle. Depuis 2001, Radigue ne travaille plus qu’avec des instrumentistes et utilise un « processus de composition intuitif » semblable à la « transmission orale de musiques traditionnelles anciennes » (Sonami 2017). Alors que les quelques intellectuels qui ont fait montre d’intérêt envers la musique de Radigue ont concentré leur attention sur l’aspect oral de ses compositions, cet article cherche ici à amener l’analyse au-delà des paramètres formels « non-écrits » de sa musique afin d’explorer comment la sonorité d’une pièce de Radigue génère de nouvelles manières de concevoir la performance et la composition. Les notes d’observation de l’auteure, la correspondance entre l’auteure, la compositrice et le quatuor, et les enregistrements des rencontres entre les Bozzini et Radigue seront utilisés pour retracer les moments de grande réaction émotionnelle causés par la sonorité très particulière que demande la musique de Radigue. Ces réactions affectives du côté de Radigue et du quatuor révèlent des points de tension entre différentes conceptions de la création collective, et réorientent complètement ce que cela signifie que de posséder, transmettre, interpréter et composer de la musique. Des spectrogrammes et des enregistrements des tentatives entreprises par les Bozzini seront utilisés dans l’étude de ces points de tension, et démontreront qu’afin de pouvoir jouer avec succès une pièce instrumentale de Radigue, les Bozzini doivent reproduire chaque élément des pièces électroniques de la compositrice; le quatuor à cordes doit se « transformer » en un étrange instrument.

The powerful concept of orientalism has undergone considerable refinement since Edward Said popularized the term with his eponymous book in 1978. Orientalism typically is presented as a totalizing process that creates polar oppositions between a dominating West and a subordinate East. U.S. orientalisms, however, reflect uniquely North American approaches to identity formation that include assimilating characteristics usually associated with the Other. This article explores the complex relationship among three individuals—U.S. composer Charles T. Griffes, Canadian singer Eva Gauthier, and German-trained Dutch East Indies composer Paul J. Seelig—and how they exploited the same Javanese songs to lend legitimacy to their individual artistic projects. A comparison of Griffes's and Seelig's settings of a West Javanese tune (“Kinanti”) provides an especially clear example of how contrasting approaches manifest different orientalisms. Whereas Griffes accompanied the melody with stock orientalist gestures to express his own fascination with the exotic, Seelig used chromatic harmonies and a chorale-like texture to ground the melody in the familiar, translating rather than representing its Otherness. The tunes that bind Griffes, Gauthier, and Seelig are only the raw materials from which they created their own unique orientalisms, each with its own sense of self and its own Javanese others.

Canada has a history of de facto Jim Crow (1911–1954). It also has a historical Black press that is intimately connected to Black America through transnational conversations, and diasporic migration. This article argues that Canada’s Black newspapers played a pivotal role in promoting Black performance during a time when they were scarcely covered in the dominant media. Drawing on news coverage from the 1920s through 1950s of black dance, musicals, and jazz clubs this article examines three case studies: Shuffle Along (1921–1924), the first all- Black Broadway musical to appear at Toronto’s Royal Alexandra Theater, Alberta-born dancer Len Gibson (1926–2008), who revolutionized modern dance in Canada in the 1940s and 1950s, and the Montreal jazz club Rockhead’s Paradise (1928–1980), a pivotal site in the city’s Little Burgundy, a Black neighborhood that thrived in the 1930s through 1950s. The authors argue that when Black people were excluded from and/or derogatorily portrayed in the dominant media, Canada’s Black press celebrated collective achievement by authenticating Black performance. By incorporating Canada’s Black Press into conversations about Jim Crow and performance, we gain a deeper understanding of Black creative output and resistance during the period.

Le blackface minstrelsy, qui a vu le jour dans le nord-est des États-Unis dans les années 1820 et 1830, mettait en scène des artistes blancs, principalement des hommes, qui franchissaient les frontières raciales en imitant des Afro-Américains avec la musique, l’humour et la danse prétendument « authentiques », courants dans les plantations du sud. Dans les années 1860, les Afro-Américains nouvellement émancipés se produisaient également sur scène en blackface. À la fin du XIXe siècle, cependant, les acteurs noirs ne se grimaient plus en noir, mais ils devaient toujours perpétuer les stéréotypes de la plantation. Ces troupes étaient dirigées par des directeurs noirs et blancs qui présentaient leurs spectacles comme « authentiques » et « nostalgiques ». Ces éléments du spectacle de minstrel noir — surtout ses représentations soi-disant « réelles » du Sud des États-Unis et de l’esclavage dans les plantations — ont trouvé un écho auprès du public canadien. Ils constituent donc une autre perspective d’approche — en dehors des politiques d’immigration et Jim Crow de facto — pour expliquer la présence du racisme et de la xénophobie anti-Noirs au Canada à la fin du XIXe siècle et au début du XXe siècle. En examinant le contenu de la minstrelsy noire, le rôle joué par les directeurs dans ses productions et la promotion dans les journaux, cet article soulève des questions sur l’étendue à laquelle les Canadiens ont été historiquement complices du dénigrement des Noirs.

The national unity crisis in Canada deepened during the 1990s; it became increasingly likely that the French-speaking province of Quebec might separate from the rest of the country. This article examines how press coverage of Céline Dion, the popular francophone singer from Quebec, has intersected with the national unity debate. After providing some background on the debate and Dion, the article explores the linkages between them in Canada's English-language press. The analysis suggests the existence of a pro-unity frame in coverage of Dion. It also identifies how news stories about Dion have been shaped by binary oppositions, quoting practices and other journalistic techniques. The article concludes by noting some similarities and differences between coverage of political events in the national unity debate (such as referendums or constitutional accords) and coverage of Dion which is associated with the debate.

Abstract: ADISQ, the organization that honours excellence in the Quebec music industry, gave francophone singer Céline Dion an award for being the Anglophone Artist of the Year in 1990. At the ADISQ gala that year, which was televised live across Canada, Dion refused to accept the award. Dion's decision to not accept the award, and the statement she made when turning it down, became the basis for a controversy that received a great deal of coverage in Canada's anglophone press. This paper examines anglophone press coverage of the ADISQ controversy involving Dion. After outlining press coverage of Dion and ADISQ during the years prior to the controversy, the paper identifies how the controversy began and analyses the issues that dominated the coverage. The paper also examines follow-up coverage of the controversy; it identifies how subsequent news stories on Dion, including some that were written several years later, linked the controversy to other issues. Résumé: L'ADISQ, l'organisme qui reconnaît l'excellence dans l'industrie de la musique au Québec, accorda à la chanteuse francophone Céline Dion le prix du Meilleur Artiste anglophone de l'année 1990. Au gala de l'ADISQ cette année-là-qui fut télévisé en direct partout au Canada-Dion a refusé d'accepter le prix. Cette décision, ainsi que les commentaires que Dion a faites en refusant le prix, suscitèrent une controverse qui fit couler beaucoup d'encre dans la presse anglophone au Canada. Cet article examine comment la presse anglophone a couvert cette controverse de l'ADISQ impliquant Dion. Après avoir tracé les grandes lignes des reportages sur Dion et l'ADISQ dans les années précédant la controverse, cet article identifie comment la controverse commença et analyse les questions qui dominèrent dans la couverture de celle-ci. Cet article examine en outre la couverture suivant la controverse; il identifie comment des reportages ultérieurs sur Dion, y compris certains qui apparurent plusieurs années plus tard, associèrent la controverse à d'autres sujets.

Drawing upon the survey instruments of Lewis and Neville [1], Nadal [2], and Yang and Carroll [3], we conducted an online survey that captured experiences of discrimination and microaggressions reported by 387 recording engineers, producers, and studio assistants living in 46 different countries. Our statistical analyses reveal highly significant and systemic gender inequalities within the field, e.g., cisgender women experience many more sexually inappropriate comments (p < e-14, large effect size) and unwanted comments about their physical appearance (p < e-12, large effect size) than cisgender men, and they are much more likely to face challenges to their authority (p < e-13, large effect size) and expertise (p < e-10, large effect size). A comparison of our results with a study about women’s experiences of microaggressions within STEM academia [3] indicates that the recording studio workplace scores 33% worse on the silencing and marginalization of women, 33% worse on gender-related workplace microaggressions, and 24% worse on sexual objectification. These findings call for serious reflection on the part of the community to progress from awareness to collective action that will unlock the control room for women and other historically and systemically marginalized groups of studio professionals.

Tiga, Christian Pronovost, Jeff Waye and more remember the golden era of raves in Montréal.

Explore the Red Bull Music Academy archive, tracing the global music institution’s more than 20-year history

This paper presents an analysis of Annesley Black’s not thinking about the elephants (2018), for saxophone quartet and live electronics. Written for Montreal’s Quasar Saxophone Quartet, this work explores concepts of suppression and emergence through traditional musical dimensions such as melody, counterpoint, and form, but also through contemporary musical dimensions such as psychoacoustics (difference tones), theatrical elements, and live electronics. Black’s practice engages critically with the compositional process itself by formulating dialectic relationships between material and compositional strategies (both intuitive and systematic). This work encourages the listener to engage in a multidimensional listening experience where conceptual extremes become a catalyst for the building of narrative and tension.

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The Lime Light and its innovative DJ Robert Ouimet made Montreal a disco city during the ’70s. This is the club's story.

Composer Ana Sokolović divided her instrumental work Géométrie sentimentale into large sections inspired by pure geometric shapes — Triangle, Cercle and Carré — describing these sections as three contrasting perspectives of the same musical materials. This article uses a narrative analytical approach as a lens through which to understand these distinct sections and the materials populating them. Inspired by Sokolović’s employment of musical objects in her compositions and by the extra-musical concepts inspiring many of her works, this analysis uses a collection of colourful robot toys as metaphors for the work’s materials. Three unique perspectives of these toys are described: in Triangle, the robots interact as characters on a dramatic stage; in Cercle, they peacefully coexist in slow motion; and in Carré new combinations of robot elements are abruptly juxtaposed against each other. The characteristics and interactions between these toys, as well as the various harmonic ‘masks’ that the composer has them wear, are helpful in understanding Sokolović’s harmonic structure, variation/transformation techniques, formal organization and rhythmic characteristics. The Serbian kolo is also shown as influential on the work, relating directly to the physicality and kinetics of the metaphorical robots.

The successful compositional careers of Jean Coulthard, Barbara Pentland, and Violet Archer spanned all but the first three decades of the twentieth century. Entering a compositional career at this time had many challenges: as Western Canadians, these composers had to establish their credibility with a public that could not be counted on to recognize the worth of their work due to sexist bias and a prevailing critical stance: public approval was evidence of a lack of true creativity. This was especially problematic for women, who had to keep to the center of progressive composition, away from the experimental and conservative margins, in order to gain recognition. Following World War II, the pressure of modernism increased, due at least in part to initiatives by the U. S. Government in occupied Germany, countering the stereotype of the unsophisticated American with a new narrative of American experimental tradition.

Enchanted by the vocal music of Serbian-born Canadian composer Ana Sokolović, Tamara Bernstein visited the composer at her home in Montreal. Sokolović’s music draws on several sources, including the theatrical world and the culture of the Balkans. The extended vocal techniques in Sokolović’s music are rooted not in the avant-garde music of the twentieth century, but in the oral traditions and poetic voice of Serbia. It seems that the more the composer returns to her cultural roots, the more she embraces the universality of the human soul.