Du songe au son. Jean-Claude Risset : Entretiens avec Matthieu Guillot

The first part of the book is indeed historically conceived. The first of its four chapters introduces the fields in which Risset worked and the topics involved in them, including language, perception, grammar, research (and institutions), tools (orchestral, technological), and the longevity of works. The second emphasises the duality of his formation – both scientific and musical – and shows its importance for the development, during his two stints at Bell Laboratories between 1964 and 1969, for the development of the first digital sounds, a process involving synthesis of trumpet sounds, auditory illusions, and the constitution of a catalogue of digital sounds, and in which perception had an important role. The next chapter covers Risset’s return to France and efforts to promote digital sound and musical research there, especially at IRCAM where he was the  director of the computer department since its creation, as well as his disagreements with fellow composer-researchers such as Pierre Schaeffer, Pierre Boulez, and Luciano Berio who failed to appreciate the importance of these subjects. Finally, the last chapter presents various reflections on topics in research, science, technology, and composition – real time, chaos, the subjection of technology to market forces, the place of composers and researchers in society, etc.

The second part of the book is devoted to Risset’s compositions, divided into three categories: mediated works, purely instrumental works, and mixed works (based on a scenario). Several representative pieces are given for each category, not necessarily well-known ones. Finally, the book finishes with substantial appendices: a catalogue of Risset’s works (by genre), a select bibliography, and a discography.

The first part offers a good introduction for anyone wanting to study Risset’s writings and take a methodical approach to this particularly rich and diverse corpus. However, the originality of these interviews lies above all in the second part. Too often Risset is seen as merely a researcher or musicologist, one of the creators of digital sound; we forget that this research was successful only because his solid musical education (in piano and composition) gave him an ear sensitised to timbre. His creativity stimulated his scientific intuition, enabling him to formualate hypotheses that would stand up to experimentation. 

Only a few works by Risset have been recorded, can be heard on the Internet, or have been studied in publications by musicologists or the composer himself. Thus this second part of the book is particularly valuable. Risset’s discussion of his music constitutes a good introduction for anyone wanting to study it in more depth. 

Olivier CLASS

18 mai 2018

Trans. Tadhg Sauvey

 

Contents

Première partie : Histoire de la musique

• Chapitre 1 : Le langage musical et les débuts
• Chapitre 2 : La double culture scientifique et musicale – Recherches aux États-Unis
• Chapitre 3 : En France : le GRM, l’IRCAM
• Chapitre 4 : Recherche, composition

Deuxième partie : Œuvres (sélection de compositions)

• Œuvres sur support
• Œuvres purement instrumentales
• Œuvres mixtes : scénarios
• Remarques finales

Annexes

 

Further reading

VEILT Anne, Falling notes, when Jean-Claude Risset transformed acoustic and music (1961-1971) / La chute des notes, lorsque Jean-Claude Risset transformait l’acoustique et la musique (1961-1971), Sampzon, Delatour, 2010.

Portraits polychromes, n° 2 : « Jean-Claude Risset », Paris, co-édition INA-GRM/CDMC, 2/2008 (139 p.), avec des articles de Pierre-Albert Castanet, Daniel Teruggi, Fabien Lévy et Jean-Claude Risset, un entretien avec Olivier Meston, un catalogue des œuvres, une discographie et une bibliographie. Traduction anglaise parue en 2013, INA-GRM.

Jean-Claude Risset – Écrits – Volume I : Composer le son, Repères d’une exploration du son numérique, Paris, Hermann, 2014.