Lola San Martín Arbide - Profile on Academia.edu (original) (raw)
I am currently a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellow at the École des Hautes Étudies en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) in Paris. Before moving to France, I was a Junior Research Fellow in Musicology at Wolfson College (University of Oxford), and a post-doctoral research fellow at the University of the Basque Country (Spain). I have a background in Translation & Interpreting (BA specialising in English and French) and also studied musicology at the University of Salamanca (BA in Musicology, MA in Hispanic Music). In 2013, I obtained my doctoral degree from this university with a thesis exploring the connections between ambient music and visual arts in the 20th century, which paid special attention issues related to urban culture. I have published on a wide range of topics, including: Erik Satie’s Musique d’ameublement, Spanish sound maps and sound ecology, soundscapes in 1930s French literature, French opera, opera and feminism, Claude Debussy, and film music. I have carried out research stays at Sorbonne-Paris IV and at the Department of Musicology of UCLA.
At present I am writing a book entitled 'City of Sound, Village of Song: Listening to Paris in Literature, Film and Music, 1870-1939' (working title), which studies how singer/songwriters, composers, authors and filmmakers —such as Victor Fournel, Aristide Bruant, Jean Cocteau, Gustave Charpentier, René Clair and Pierre Mac Orlan— used the city and its sounds as creative force and political metaphor. This study of overlooked, or totally ignored, archival sources and cultural artefacts will enlighten our knowledge of how street culture and city life intersected with art during the Third Republic and will allow us to re-evaluate the politics of the city soundscape and its role in defining French identity.
I have taught lecture courses, seminars and tutorials in Spanish, French and English, on topics such as musical aesthetics; film music; music and mass media; ambient music; soundscapes of nostalgia; music and nationalism, and Parisian sound and street culture. In 2016, I co-founded the ‘Urban Rhythms’ Network (supported by The Oxford Research Centre for the Humanities): (http://torch.ox.ac.uk/urban) and in 2019 co-organised the ‘Sound and Music in the Prism of Sound Studies’ conference (EHESS / Columbia University).
My research interests include: sound studies, music, sound and space, sound ecology, French music, French cultural studies, film music, sound in literature, avant-garde intermedia art, Situationism, walking, history of the senses, popular music, middlebrow culture.
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Articles / Book chapters by Lola San Martín Arbide
Carmen Revisitée / Revisiter Carmen, Claire Lozier et Isabelle Marc (dir.), Peter Lang, 2020
Aujourd’hui, Carmen de Georges Bizet est devenu un choix de prédilection pour des metteurs en scè... more Aujourd’hui, Carmen de Georges Bizet est devenu un choix de prédilection pour des metteurs en scène qui veulent proposer des spectacles révisionnistes autour des questions sur la sexualité et le féminicide. Historiquement, l’opéra est un genre musical et théâtral malléable, mais les modifications du scénario, relocalisé dans le temps ou dans l’espace, afin de raconter une histoire autre, reste un geste qui provoque les critiques les plus acharnées, souvent récupérées à des fins politiques dans le contexte actuel de l’irruption sur la grande scène médiatique de la question des violences faites aux femmes et d’un clivage droite-gauche sur la légitimité des revendications féministes.
Après un brève tour d’horizons des caractérisations de Carmen, d’après Mérimée, Meilhac, Halévy et Bizet, ce chapitre examine surtout deux production récentes – celle de Leo Muscato et Cristiano Chiarot pour le Teatro del Maggio Musicale à Florence (2018) et celle de Barrie Kosky (Francfort, 2016 ; Londres, 2018) – sans négliger d’autres spectacles (de théâtre et de danse), où la vision du metteur en scène sur des questions de féminisme, de genre, et de masculinité toxique a suscité des débats sur la violence rituelle faite aux femmes, sur scène et dans nos sociétés modernes. En s’inspirant des textes devenus fondamentaux de la musicologie moderne et féministe de Susan McClary, ce chapitre découvre les défis de la mise en scène de Carmen au XXIème siècle.
Carmen Abroad, Clair Rowden and Richard Langham Smith (Eds), Cambridge University Press, 2020
The opera Carmen has been at the centre of vivid debates on Spanish national identity since its p... more The opera Carmen has been at the centre of vivid debates on Spanish national identity since its première. Praised abroad for its Spanish melodies, Bizet’s work could hardy be taken as authentic in the country where Mérimée set his 1845 novella. This chapter explores the interpretation of the opera by intellectuals and music critics from Andalusia and the Basque provinces, the two most prominent geographical references in the work.
The chapter offers a contextualization of the opera within the Spanish cultural politics of the period, which coincided with the blossoming of peripheral regionalisms. It charts the reception of the opera in these regions against the backdrop of the tensions between ideas of peripheral and centralist Spanishness, and nuances existing accounts of the opera’s reception in Spain. First it surveys the case of Andalusia, placing the arrival of the opera alongside the assimilation of its culture as the quintessential expression of the nation’s identity. Secondly, it shows Basque reactions to Carmen, which further exemplified the difficulty of consolidating the one-size-fits-all idea of Spanishness that the opera transmitted abroad. The chapter presents a cultural history of the reception of the opera together with a discussion of the cultural politics of the rich web of ethnic identities that constitute modern Spain.
Brian Eno, estratega oblicuo
Músicas y medios audiovisuales: análisis, investigación y nuevas propuestas didácticas, Vol. 1, Teresa Fraile y Julio Arce (Eds.), Alicante, Letra de Palo, 2017
Jim Jarmusch y los orígenes del rock and roll. Trenes, radios y crítica cultural en Mystery Train
Música y medios audiovisuales. Análisis, investigación y nuevas propuestas didácticas, Vol. 2, Laura Miranda y Ramón Sanjuán (Eds.), Alicante, Letra de Palo, 2017
‘Paris, son cœur et ses entrailles écoutées par Léon-Paul Fargue’, in Ludions, no. 15, pp. 122-132.
Music of the Basque
Music Around the World: A Global Encyclopedia, Vol. 2 “Europe”, edited by Matthew Mihalka and Andrew Martin [forthcoming], 2019
Mapas sonoros, el estudio de nuestro entorno desde la ecología musical.
Musicología global, musicología local, Javier Marín López (ed.)., 2013
Este artículo explora el desarrollo del concepto de mapa sonoro ligado al de paisaje sonoro. Este... more Este artículo explora el desarrollo del concepto de mapa sonoro ligado al de paisaje sonoro. Este género se presenta como un cruce entre la militancia contra la contaminación acústica y la creación artística desde el ámbito de la ecología del sonido, o ecomusicología. La escucha atenta que implica la confección de un mapa sonoro está en contradicción con el empleo de música de ambiente. Desde los primeros equipos de investigación surgidos en los años 1970 en Canadá, como el Word Soundscape Project o el World Forum for Acoustic Ecology, se proclamaba como objetivo principal la salvaguarda de los paisajes sonoros naturales, desprovistos en la mayor medida posible de sonidos generados por el hombre. A través de los sonidos naturales de cada lugar, se llegaría pues a encontrar la identidad sonora de cada espacio. Gracias a esta vía de interpretación se abre un camino hacia un nuevo tipo de turismo de sonidos; los mapas sonoros ofrecen la posibilidad de conocer lugares lejanos desde la inmediatez de Internet. Ésta es una de las claves de su popularidad, pues la creación de mapas sonoros es un arte gratuito y accesible para todos. Internet posibilita la configuración de una red horizontal en la que colaborar a distancia con otras personas en términos de igualdad. Un mapa sonoro es también una declaración identitaria, aspecto puesto en relieve por los mapas creados en España, como SoinuMapa, Escoitar o MapaSonoru. País Vasco, Galicia y Asturias fueron algunas de las primeras comunidades en poner en marcha sus proyecto. La división del territorio sonoro según las fronteras administrativas no fue uno de los planteamientos originales de los setenta sino que es un aspecto marcadamente español. ¿Se puede, pues, crear un vínculo entre los mapas sonoros y las reivindicaciones regionales?
This article explores the evolution of the concept of sound map, closely linked to that of soundscape. This genre is a middle ground between an active fight against sound pollution and the creation of artistic work from the field of sound ecology or ecomusicology. The alert listening implicit in soundmap making is in clear opposition to the use of ambient music. The first research teams created around this idea in Canada in the 1970s focused on the preservation of natural soundscapes, devoid of sounds created by mankind. Exploration of a place’s natural sounds would allow the comprehension of its sound identity. This interpretation path has opened new perspectives on sound tourism; soundmaps grant us knowledge of distant places through the immediacy of the Internet. Here lies one of the keys of the popularity of soundmaps, for they enable the creation of a horizontal network where everyone may collaborate on equal terms. A soundmap is also an identity statement, especially highlighted by maps created in Spain such as SoinuMapa, Escoitar or MapaSonoru. The Basque Country, Galicia and Asturias were among the first autonomous regions to develop their own map. Division of the sound field according to administrative borders was an idea absent from of the 1970s but has been powerfully embraced in Spain. Could we claim a link between soundmap making and regional demands?
Erik Satie’s mise en scène: Uniforms and the Self-Image of a Composer in Turn-of-the-Century Paris.
Journal of Fashion, Style & Popular Culture (Special Issue: Music, Fashion and Style), 2015
Dressed as a dandy, a bureaucrat, a regional schoolteacher or even as an undertaker, French compo... more Dressed as a dandy, a bureaucrat, a regional schoolteacher or even as an undertaker, French composer Erik Satie was easily spotted in Paris during the first half of the twentieth century. Hundreds of testimonies and anecdotes about the musician reveal that his appearance was perceived in itself as an artistic statement. After World War I he was known as ‘The Velvet Gentleman’ to the anglophile artists of Montparnasse and during the last twenty-five years of his life, not even on the sunniest of days in the Ville Lumière did he leave his house without his famous umbrella. With all these eccentric uniforms, Satie embraced his lifelong habit of defying preconceived notions of the connections between art and everyday life. The self-image he carefully tailored was in clear opposition to the setting of his room in the suburb of Arcueil-Cachan, which he never cleaned or tidied up. Satie is hence an interesting case study of the opposition of private and public image as well as of the unification of art and life. Many of his friends recall that watching him come out of his house was like seeing an actor going on stage.
Etno-Folk: revista galega de etnomusicoloxía, Nº. 16-17, 2010 , págs. 163-179, 2010
rESUMEn: El presente texto está dedicado a la vida y obra de Erik Satie (866-1925) y sus relacion... more rESUMEn: El presente texto está dedicado a la vida y obra de Erik Satie (866-1925) y sus relaciones con el contexto urbano de París a finales del siglo XIX y principios del XX. Las dos principales obras estudiadas son Vexations y Musique d'ameublement, pues guardan una estrecha relación por una parte con el nacimiento de una cultura de masas y por otra con las vanguardias artísticas del momento.
Furniture Music for Airports: Erik Satie and Brian Eno reflect on the music that best suits everyday life
La música en el lenguaje audiovisual. Aproximaciones multidisciplinares a una comunicación mediática. Teresa Fraile y Eduardo Viñuela (Eds.), Sevilla, Arcibel Editores, 2012
Reflexiones en torno a la música y la imagen desde la musicología española. Matilde Olarte (Ed.), 2009
La noche del 4 al 5 de diciembre de 1957, el compositor Miles Davis y su quinteto, el realizador ... more La noche del 4 al 5 de diciembre de 1957, el compositor Miles Davis y su quinteto, el realizador Louis Malle y la actriz Jeanne Moreau entre otros se reunieron en un edificio de la Avenida de Los Campos Elíseos de París para grabar la música de la que trata el presente texto: la banda sonora original de Ascensor para el Cadalso. Esta enigmática velada es el resultado de un cúmulo de coincidencias y golpes de suerte.
Reviews by Lola San Martín Arbide
‘Erik Satie. Music, Art and Literature, Caroline Potter (ed.)’, in Music in Art, vol. XI, no. 1-2, 2015, pp. 331-333.
‘Banda sonora: música, sonido, palabras’, in Revista de Musicología, vol. 38, no. 1, 2015, pp. 365-368.
Conference review
En Abîme: Listening, Reading, Writing. An Archival Fiction. By Daniela Cascella.
Ethnomusicology Review, Apr 2013
Doctoral Dissertation by Lola San Martín Arbide
Master's Thesis by Lola San Martín Arbide
La música hace películas. Análisis del proyecto musical de Jim Jarmusch como motor de su creación cinematográfica.
Conferences. Congresos y jornadas by Lola San Martín Arbide
Letradepalo Ediciones, Alicante, 2017
Entre los logros recientes de la musicología española se encuentra la ampliación de sus objetivos... more Entre los logros recientes de la musicología española se encuentra la ampliación de sus objetivos de estudio y la incorportación de trabajos que, desde nuevas metodología sy perspectivas de análisis, se interesan por músicas mayoritariamente ignoradas tiempo atrás, como aquellas que forman parte del lenguaje audiovisual. Este volumen contiene una selección de artículos elaborados en los últimos años por jóvenes investigadores y docentes vinculados con el ámbito académico. Es el primer fruto de la Comisión de Trabajo de Música y Lenguajes Audiovisuales de la Sociedad Española de Musicología, creada para agrupar a todos aquellos investigadores interesados en la música en el cine, la televisión, el videoclip, la publicidad o Internet, y en todos aquellos medios y formas de expresión con combinan lo sonoro y las imágenes en movimiento.
Call for papers – CFP by Lola San Martín Arbide
Carmen Revisitée / Revisiter Carmen, Claire Lozier et Isabelle Marc (dir.), Peter Lang, 2020
Aujourd’hui, Carmen de Georges Bizet est devenu un choix de prédilection pour des metteurs en scè... more Aujourd’hui, Carmen de Georges Bizet est devenu un choix de prédilection pour des metteurs en scène qui veulent proposer des spectacles révisionnistes autour des questions sur la sexualité et le féminicide. Historiquement, l’opéra est un genre musical et théâtral malléable, mais les modifications du scénario, relocalisé dans le temps ou dans l’espace, afin de raconter une histoire autre, reste un geste qui provoque les critiques les plus acharnées, souvent récupérées à des fins politiques dans le contexte actuel de l’irruption sur la grande scène médiatique de la question des violences faites aux femmes et d’un clivage droite-gauche sur la légitimité des revendications féministes.
Après un brève tour d’horizons des caractérisations de Carmen, d’après Mérimée, Meilhac, Halévy et Bizet, ce chapitre examine surtout deux production récentes – celle de Leo Muscato et Cristiano Chiarot pour le Teatro del Maggio Musicale à Florence (2018) et celle de Barrie Kosky (Francfort, 2016 ; Londres, 2018) – sans négliger d’autres spectacles (de théâtre et de danse), où la vision du metteur en scène sur des questions de féminisme, de genre, et de masculinité toxique a suscité des débats sur la violence rituelle faite aux femmes, sur scène et dans nos sociétés modernes. En s’inspirant des textes devenus fondamentaux de la musicologie moderne et féministe de Susan McClary, ce chapitre découvre les défis de la mise en scène de Carmen au XXIème siècle.
Carmen Abroad, Clair Rowden and Richard Langham Smith (Eds), Cambridge University Press, 2020
The opera Carmen has been at the centre of vivid debates on Spanish national identity since its p... more The opera Carmen has been at the centre of vivid debates on Spanish national identity since its première. Praised abroad for its Spanish melodies, Bizet’s work could hardy be taken as authentic in the country where Mérimée set his 1845 novella. This chapter explores the interpretation of the opera by intellectuals and music critics from Andalusia and the Basque provinces, the two most prominent geographical references in the work.
The chapter offers a contextualization of the opera within the Spanish cultural politics of the period, which coincided with the blossoming of peripheral regionalisms. It charts the reception of the opera in these regions against the backdrop of the tensions between ideas of peripheral and centralist Spanishness, and nuances existing accounts of the opera’s reception in Spain. First it surveys the case of Andalusia, placing the arrival of the opera alongside the assimilation of its culture as the quintessential expression of the nation’s identity. Secondly, it shows Basque reactions to Carmen, which further exemplified the difficulty of consolidating the one-size-fits-all idea of Spanishness that the opera transmitted abroad. The chapter presents a cultural history of the reception of the opera together with a discussion of the cultural politics of the rich web of ethnic identities that constitute modern Spain.
Brian Eno, estratega oblicuo
Músicas y medios audiovisuales: análisis, investigación y nuevas propuestas didácticas, Vol. 1, Teresa Fraile y Julio Arce (Eds.), Alicante, Letra de Palo, 2017
Jim Jarmusch y los orígenes del rock and roll. Trenes, radios y crítica cultural en Mystery Train
Música y medios audiovisuales. Análisis, investigación y nuevas propuestas didácticas, Vol. 2, Laura Miranda y Ramón Sanjuán (Eds.), Alicante, Letra de Palo, 2017
‘Paris, son cœur et ses entrailles écoutées par Léon-Paul Fargue’, in Ludions, no. 15, pp. 122-132.
Music of the Basque
Music Around the World: A Global Encyclopedia, Vol. 2 “Europe”, edited by Matthew Mihalka and Andrew Martin [forthcoming], 2019
Mapas sonoros, el estudio de nuestro entorno desde la ecología musical.
Musicología global, musicología local, Javier Marín López (ed.)., 2013
Este artículo explora el desarrollo del concepto de mapa sonoro ligado al de paisaje sonoro. Este... more Este artículo explora el desarrollo del concepto de mapa sonoro ligado al de paisaje sonoro. Este género se presenta como un cruce entre la militancia contra la contaminación acústica y la creación artística desde el ámbito de la ecología del sonido, o ecomusicología. La escucha atenta que implica la confección de un mapa sonoro está en contradicción con el empleo de música de ambiente. Desde los primeros equipos de investigación surgidos en los años 1970 en Canadá, como el Word Soundscape Project o el World Forum for Acoustic Ecology, se proclamaba como objetivo principal la salvaguarda de los paisajes sonoros naturales, desprovistos en la mayor medida posible de sonidos generados por el hombre. A través de los sonidos naturales de cada lugar, se llegaría pues a encontrar la identidad sonora de cada espacio. Gracias a esta vía de interpretación se abre un camino hacia un nuevo tipo de turismo de sonidos; los mapas sonoros ofrecen la posibilidad de conocer lugares lejanos desde la inmediatez de Internet. Ésta es una de las claves de su popularidad, pues la creación de mapas sonoros es un arte gratuito y accesible para todos. Internet posibilita la configuración de una red horizontal en la que colaborar a distancia con otras personas en términos de igualdad. Un mapa sonoro es también una declaración identitaria, aspecto puesto en relieve por los mapas creados en España, como SoinuMapa, Escoitar o MapaSonoru. País Vasco, Galicia y Asturias fueron algunas de las primeras comunidades en poner en marcha sus proyecto. La división del territorio sonoro según las fronteras administrativas no fue uno de los planteamientos originales de los setenta sino que es un aspecto marcadamente español. ¿Se puede, pues, crear un vínculo entre los mapas sonoros y las reivindicaciones regionales?
This article explores the evolution of the concept of sound map, closely linked to that of soundscape. This genre is a middle ground between an active fight against sound pollution and the creation of artistic work from the field of sound ecology or ecomusicology. The alert listening implicit in soundmap making is in clear opposition to the use of ambient music. The first research teams created around this idea in Canada in the 1970s focused on the preservation of natural soundscapes, devoid of sounds created by mankind. Exploration of a place’s natural sounds would allow the comprehension of its sound identity. This interpretation path has opened new perspectives on sound tourism; soundmaps grant us knowledge of distant places through the immediacy of the Internet. Here lies one of the keys of the popularity of soundmaps, for they enable the creation of a horizontal network where everyone may collaborate on equal terms. A soundmap is also an identity statement, especially highlighted by maps created in Spain such as SoinuMapa, Escoitar or MapaSonoru. The Basque Country, Galicia and Asturias were among the first autonomous regions to develop their own map. Division of the sound field according to administrative borders was an idea absent from of the 1970s but has been powerfully embraced in Spain. Could we claim a link between soundmap making and regional demands?
Erik Satie’s mise en scène: Uniforms and the Self-Image of a Composer in Turn-of-the-Century Paris.
Journal of Fashion, Style & Popular Culture (Special Issue: Music, Fashion and Style), 2015
Dressed as a dandy, a bureaucrat, a regional schoolteacher or even as an undertaker, French compo... more Dressed as a dandy, a bureaucrat, a regional schoolteacher or even as an undertaker, French composer Erik Satie was easily spotted in Paris during the first half of the twentieth century. Hundreds of testimonies and anecdotes about the musician reveal that his appearance was perceived in itself as an artistic statement. After World War I he was known as ‘The Velvet Gentleman’ to the anglophile artists of Montparnasse and during the last twenty-five years of his life, not even on the sunniest of days in the Ville Lumière did he leave his house without his famous umbrella. With all these eccentric uniforms, Satie embraced his lifelong habit of defying preconceived notions of the connections between art and everyday life. The self-image he carefully tailored was in clear opposition to the setting of his room in the suburb of Arcueil-Cachan, which he never cleaned or tidied up. Satie is hence an interesting case study of the opposition of private and public image as well as of the unification of art and life. Many of his friends recall that watching him come out of his house was like seeing an actor going on stage.
Etno-Folk: revista galega de etnomusicoloxía, Nº. 16-17, 2010 , págs. 163-179, 2010
rESUMEn: El presente texto está dedicado a la vida y obra de Erik Satie (866-1925) y sus relacion... more rESUMEn: El presente texto está dedicado a la vida y obra de Erik Satie (866-1925) y sus relaciones con el contexto urbano de París a finales del siglo XIX y principios del XX. Las dos principales obras estudiadas son Vexations y Musique d'ameublement, pues guardan una estrecha relación por una parte con el nacimiento de una cultura de masas y por otra con las vanguardias artísticas del momento.
Furniture Music for Airports: Erik Satie and Brian Eno reflect on the music that best suits everyday life
La música en el lenguaje audiovisual. Aproximaciones multidisciplinares a una comunicación mediática. Teresa Fraile y Eduardo Viñuela (Eds.), Sevilla, Arcibel Editores, 2012
Reflexiones en torno a la música y la imagen desde la musicología española. Matilde Olarte (Ed.), 2009
La noche del 4 al 5 de diciembre de 1957, el compositor Miles Davis y su quinteto, el realizador ... more La noche del 4 al 5 de diciembre de 1957, el compositor Miles Davis y su quinteto, el realizador Louis Malle y la actriz Jeanne Moreau entre otros se reunieron en un edificio de la Avenida de Los Campos Elíseos de París para grabar la música de la que trata el presente texto: la banda sonora original de Ascensor para el Cadalso. Esta enigmática velada es el resultado de un cúmulo de coincidencias y golpes de suerte.
‘Erik Satie. Music, Art and Literature, Caroline Potter (ed.)’, in Music in Art, vol. XI, no. 1-2, 2015, pp. 331-333.
‘Banda sonora: música, sonido, palabras’, in Revista de Musicología, vol. 38, no. 1, 2015, pp. 365-368.
Conference review
En Abîme: Listening, Reading, Writing. An Archival Fiction. By Daniela Cascella.
Ethnomusicology Review, Apr 2013
La música hace películas. Análisis del proyecto musical de Jim Jarmusch como motor de su creación cinematográfica.
Letradepalo Ediciones, Alicante, 2017
Entre los logros recientes de la musicología española se encuentra la ampliación de sus objetivos... more Entre los logros recientes de la musicología española se encuentra la ampliación de sus objetivos de estudio y la incorportación de trabajos que, desde nuevas metodología sy perspectivas de análisis, se interesan por músicas mayoritariamente ignoradas tiempo atrás, como aquellas que forman parte del lenguaje audiovisual. Este volumen contiene una selección de artículos elaborados en los últimos años por jóvenes investigadores y docentes vinculados con el ámbito académico. Es el primer fruto de la Comisión de Trabajo de Música y Lenguajes Audiovisuales de la Sociedad Española de Musicología, creada para agrupar a todos aquellos investigadores interesados en la música en el cine, la televisión, el videoclip, la publicidad o Internet, y en todos aquellos medios y formas de expresión con combinan lo sonoro y las imágenes en movimiento.
The Parisian quarter of Montmartre experienced a series of transformations in the 19th and 20th c... more The Parisian quarter of Montmartre experienced a series of transformations in the 19th and 20th centuries. After its annexation to Paris in 1860, the area became known during the Belle Epoque as the melting pot where painters, composers and performers shared and exchanged their artistic practices. Thus, it was here that Picasso and Satie became first acquainted, and where Modigliani was hosted by Utrillo, while Willette listened to the chansons réalistes of Aristide Bruant and Yvette Guilbert. Between avant-garde and conservatism, Montmartre wa a rich soil for the development of café-concert, cabaret and street songs. Following the First World War, the ‘innovative’ character of the hill of Montmartre moved to other areas of the city, namely to Montparnasse, home to the avant-garde impulse o the Roaring Twenties. In any case, the ‘Old Montmartre’ still retained its seductive powers, its innocent charm and friendly ambiance. In the 1950s and 1960s it became a site of opposition and reaction against the ‘delirious urbanism’ that, according to Francis Carco, characterized the City of Light. Relevant figures of the literary world, such as Carco, but also others linked to architecture, such as Claude Charpentier, set out to protect the ‘bohemian’ memory and the material and immaterial cultural heritage of Montmartre. The generation that sung ‘the Montmartre of our twenties’ in the phrasing of Paul Yaki— Carco, Mac Orlan and Édith Piaf, among many others—faded in the following decade (1960-1970) thus marking the end to a century in which the idea of a ‘Montmartre identity’ had been implemented and often mixed up with that of a Parisian or French identity at large. Between 1860 and 1960 the Montmartre song epitomized Paris both in France and abroad despite its local roots inspired by the local, village-like nature of the quarter (through its reliance on the vernacular slang). Open-air life at the hill, with its oneiric touches, was equally glorified for the sake of the melancholy of its people, of its sites. Strolling around the streets surrounding the church of Saint-Pierre, how could one not evoke the melody of ‘La Complainte de la Butte’, with lyrics by Jean Renoir?
This conference seeks to interrogate how to insert this topographical repertoire withina sonic and musical history of the quarter of Montmartre and, beyond that, in the cultural history of Paris. Going further than song as a musical composition it addresses the relationship between song-writing and other crafts that enrich the artistic qualities of song: it is not only composers and song-writers who are at the core of the history of the Montmartre song, but also illustrators, music critics, publishers, impresarios, etc. Performers, sometimes also authors of the texts that they sang, of the music of a song or of both, are at the centre of the world of the Montmartre song. We interrogate whether or not it is adequate to understand their songs as a faithful narrative of their lives. The conference also seeks proposals dealing with score editions, including the different formats and its illustrations as they bear witness to the importance of the author(s), as well as to the celebrity status of the painters that were commissioned to design their covers, such as Steinlen, Ibels, Toulouse-Lautrec and Guillaume, among others.
With these issues in mind, we invite proposals covering (but not limited to) the following themes:
-Montmartre song and identity politics
-Performers: gender, sexuality and life-writing
-Illustrated scores and iconography
-Topography of song and its venues
-Authenticity and cosmopolitanism
-Kitsch allure and tourism
-Song and music recording; song in the cinema
-Funding, production and dissemination of song
-National and international dimensions of the Montmartre song
Keynote speaker: Prof. Derek B. Scott (University of Leeds), ‘The New Cabaret Songs of Montmartre, 1880–1900’.
Scientific committee
Laurent Bihl (Université Paris 1 Panthéon Sorbonne)
Phillip Dennis Cate (Professeur émérite, Université d’État du New Jersey)
Étienne Jardin (Palazzetto Bru Zane)
Anne Monjaret (EHESS-CNRS, IIAC LAHIC)
Michela Niccolai (LaM, ULB ; IHRIM, Lyon 2)
Cécile Prévost-Thomas (Université Sorbonne Nouvelle, CERLIS)
Lola San Martín Arbide (CRAL / EHESS)
Organising committee
Étienne Jardin
Michela Niccolai
Lola San Martín Arbide
Date: 15 June 2020
Venue: EHESS, Salle 13, 105 boulevard Raspail, 75006 PARIS
Abstracts for 20-minute papers in English or French of no more than 250 words should be sent to chansonmontmartre@gmail.com by 10 February 2020, and applicants will be informed whether they have been successful
by 10 March 2020.
The aim of this conference is to explore space through music, approaching the history of the city... more The aim of this conference is to explore space through music, approaching the history of the city via the notion of nostalgia. Often described as a form of homesickness, nostalgia is, by definition, the feeling that makes us wish to repossess or reoccupy a space. Such spaces appear to us as both near and distant, tangible and remote, and it seems that attempts at reclaiming them are frequently musical in nature. We know, for instance, that particular compositions have played important roles in helping people to navigate or mitigate a sense of displacement. In these circumstances, affective experiences may be bound up with trauma or joy, as is the case of song during wartime or musical imaginaries among migrants. Under other conditions, we might identify a ‘second-hand nostalgia’ in the guise of a musically-inflected tourism that seeks to reactivate (for pleasure and/or profit) the historical aura of an urban site. What are we to make of the abundance of personal, inter-personal, and propositional episodes that posit music as some kind of a bridge to the urban past?