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After an introduction to the genre »chanson« and its fascination with real life, this article investigates the different ways in which French (and Franco-Canadian) chansons deal with ageing and old age. The study looks at the songs’ lyrics, which describe or represent old age in a manner between stereotype and intimate confession, and at the authentic or inauthentic performance of the chanson by its singer or singer-songwriter. The analyses are followed by an overview of chansons describing the end of the world. It can be shown that many of these songs focus on the feelings of lovers facing the apocalypse and that in more than one case chansons envisioning the last moments of the world contain a mixture of fear and parody.

The Ammanuel Montreal Evangelical Church (amec) is composed of over 150 members of Ethiopian and Eritrean origin. Through the examination of their musical practices, this article analyzes how music is involved in the construction and expression of religious identities in the context of migration. It appears that in borrowing worship music widespread in Ethiopia and in its diaspora, the faithful highlight the "Ethiopianness" of the group, at the expense of the minority Eritrean identity. The author then reveals that each musical parameter conveys different identity facets. If the universality of the Gospel message is expressed through dance and lyrics, the repertoire and its instrumentarium convey the "Ethiopianness" of the congregation, while the rhythms refer to a multi-ethnic Ethiopian imaginary. As for the local identity (Montreal) of the congregation, it is represented by the combination of several hymns borrowed from the stars of Ethiopian Gospel music. Finally, the paper highlights some musical ambivalences of the faithful who, in the context of migration, feel torn between several cultures.

Le powwow compte parmi les pratiques culturelles les plus importantes de l’autochtonie nord-américaine, et constitue une pratique artistique en pleine expansion : alors que le powwow existe depuis le XIXe siècle dans le sud-ouest des États-Unis, de nombreuses communautés du sud-est canadien (essentiellement dans les provinces de l’Ontario et du Québec) ont investi cette forme culturelle dans les dernières décennies. L’étude présentée dans ce texte se penche sur ce phénomène des powwows du sud-est canadien, en s’attardant à la fois à la dimension de transferts culturels qui le définit, et à la dimension politique qui y est sous-jacente. Nous nous pencherons pour ce faire sur la définition et les influences autochtones aux origines du powwow contemporain, sur la géographie de ce que les praticiens qualifient de « retour des traditions, et sur la structuration géocultu­relle des powwows du sud-est, parmi lesquels nous distinguerons le powwow ojibway (région ontarienne du nord des Grands Lacs), le powwow haudenosaune (péninsule de Niagara et vallée du Saint-Laurent), et le powwow est-algonquien (Outaouais, Haute Mauricie, Lac Saint-Jean).

L'analyse proposée des films C.R.A.Z.Y. (Jean-Marc Vallée, 2005), J'ai tué ma mère (Xavier Dolan, 2009), Les amours imaginaires (Dolan, 2010) et Laurence Anyways (Dolan, 2012) convoque trois perspectives : le rock, le camp et le queer. Dans ces films québécois, la musique rock semble orienter la narration et l'esthétique. Elle fait également le pont entre l'anticonformisme auquel renvoie le paradigme rock et l'identité marginale des personnages. L'esthétique de l'image se plie parfois à la bande sonore, qui encourage certains effets visuels. Cela dit, les films de Vallée et de Dolan se servent différemment de l'esthétique rock et du camp, ce qui s'accorde aux représentations distinctes qu'ils produisent eu égard à l'orientation ou à la diversité sexuelles et au genre. L'excès des films de Dolan, leur hyperréférentialité, leur jeu constant entre recherche d'émotions esthétiques et d'émois narratifs, leur fréquente suspension de la réalité contribuent à une écriture du différé dans laquelle les personnages queer jouissent d'une amplitude considérable, alors que dans C.R.A.Z.Y. la performance hyperbolique s'articule plutôt à une analytique de l'homophobie (sociétale et intériorisée) que le film s'efforce de dresser, sans pouvoir échapper à un certain malaise.

Vivier: A Night Report is a kind of poetical archive of musical details, protocols, experiences, concepts, memories, fears, desires and sorrows connected to Canadian composer Claude Vivier's (1948-1983) unusual destiny. All characters from Marko Nikodijević's opera originate from Vivier's life and works but they are re-indexed, or reenacted differently. The countertenor voice of Vivier is what primarily makes him different from all the rest of the characters. Even it could be claimed that the rest of the voices are dominated by Vivier's vocal presence on stage. Vivier stands as symbol for minority, queer, vulnerable. During his short life he was trying to get his own voice, voice as the personification of freedom and possibility to be heard. Finally he gets vivid, imaginative opera in which both his physical and personified voices are shining by creativity that his art emanate. He gets his singing voice, and he finally gets heard.

In this paper, I examine how urban redevelopment and the regulation of public spaces in Montréal in the 1960s transformed the representations of the Lower Main, the city’s historic red-light and entertainment district. I argue that although the Lower Main had long been central to anti-urban discourses regarding heterosexual prostitution, by the 1960s the increased regulation of the city’s queer and trans populations changed its meaning as a representation of the inner city in decline. A central objective is to use this case study to queer discourses of urban decline by considering how heteronormativity was involved in the construction of the city’s sexual margins in the post-World War II period. A related objective is to call into question the narrative of “decline” itself by providing one example of the opportunities it created for queer place-making.

On their arrival in Montreal, Moroccan Jews established themselves as a community and created a festival in order to promote, gain recognition of, and institutionalize their culture and identity into the broader Jewish community of Montreal. In this article, I propose to analyse the festival as a “thing” (Kopytoff 1986), the biography of which will give us information about its transformation, in terms of representation, through time. From ethnography and historical analysis of the festival, as well as an examination of cultural policies in Canada, Quebec and Montreal during the last decades, we will discover that Sephardic musical heritage, which was initially used for community celebration, was progressively transformed into a marketable product embodied by international pop stars. The representation of Sephardic identity transitioned from a specific cultural reference to Morocco, to Judeo-Spanish and Judeo-Arabic songs, to a plethora of references promoted by Sephardic pop stars, mainly from France and Israel. More broadly, this study will illuminate issues surrounding strategies implemented by the community leaders to be part of these cultural policies and gain visibility in the public sphere.

Nicole Lizée is an award-winning classical music composer and performer who composes for string quartet, electronic music, turntable, film, and other media. She has emerged as a major new voice in new classical composition, winning the coveted Canada Council for the Arts Jules Léger Prize (2013) for new Canadian chamber music with her work White Label Experiment. She has been commissioned by the Kronos Quartet among many other prestigious ensembles. This interview engages her relation to various aspects of her work, from marketing and promotion to inspiration and creation in the context of “avant garde” music. How can marketing continue to be part of the art itself? Does instinctively not fitting into a box allow for greater freedom to explore classical and chamber music in the broader context of film and other media? What other factors may be contributing to the inspired vitality of her work?