TY - JOUR
T1 - From Interval, to Trill, to Undulation
T2 - Expressions of Vulnerability in the Melismatic Gestures of Jacques Brel and Stromae
AU - Jonsson, Andrea
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2019, © 2019 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
Copyright:
Copyright 2019 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2018/8/8
Y1 - 2018/8/8
N2 - In this article, I propose a musico-cultural analysis of expressions of vulnerability in the connections between musical interval, linguistic texture, and language. I focus on the productive qualities of the in-between space of the voice within a specific interval—the falling semitone—and demonstrate how the exaggerated use, repetition, and reverberations of this interval by two Belgian musical artists, Jacques Brel (1929–1978) and Stromae (b. 1985) contribute to a cartography of vulnerability particular to their aesthetic projects and cultural critiques. This analysis places Michel Serres’ philosophies of communication and Roland Barthes’ grain de la voix into dialogue with an examination of the aural in-between. The exaggerated repetition of the semitone is heard as an undulation reminiscent of a melisma (several notes sung over one syllable), which is mirrored in the embellished trilled [R] consonant particular to these two artists. Visualizing the shared melodic and linguistic acoustic movements as undulations provides a point of access into the in-between space of the sung voice that reframes weakness, failure, and vulnerability as highly choreographed and exploited central aesthetic projects shared by Brel and Stromae.
AB - In this article, I propose a musico-cultural analysis of expressions of vulnerability in the connections between musical interval, linguistic texture, and language. I focus on the productive qualities of the in-between space of the voice within a specific interval—the falling semitone—and demonstrate how the exaggerated use, repetition, and reverberations of this interval by two Belgian musical artists, Jacques Brel (1929–1978) and Stromae (b. 1985) contribute to a cartography of vulnerability particular to their aesthetic projects and cultural critiques. This analysis places Michel Serres’ philosophies of communication and Roland Barthes’ grain de la voix into dialogue with an examination of the aural in-between. The exaggerated repetition of the semitone is heard as an undulation reminiscent of a melisma (several notes sung over one syllable), which is mirrored in the embellished trilled [R] consonant particular to these two artists. Visualizing the shared melodic and linguistic acoustic movements as undulations provides a point of access into the in-between space of the sung voice that reframes weakness, failure, and vulnerability as highly choreographed and exploited central aesthetic projects shared by Brel and Stromae.
KW - Voice
KW - communication
KW - grain
KW - music
KW - noise
KW - vulnerability
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85065336310&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/17409292.2018.1532059
DO - 10.1080/17409292.2018.1532059
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85065336310
VL - 22
SP - 436
EP - 444
JO - Contemporary French and Francophone Studies
JF - Contemporary French and Francophone Studies
SN - 1740-9292
IS - 4
ER -