L’instrument de musique : réflexions sur le geste, l’écoute et la création

Abstract

Musical sound is fundamentally vibration, and the character of that vibration depends on the instruments employed in the making of sound. To be faithful to the instruments envisaged by a composer of a musical work isn’t simply a matter of authenticity for authenticity’s sake. Our grasp of the qualities of a musical work depends in part on our sense of the performing gestures of players, whether seen, as in live performance, or merely imagined, as with recordings, performing gestures that are specific to particular instruments. And that is because musical gesture, on which music’s expressivity directly depends, is in part a function of those instrument-specific performing gestures. Each type of instrument possesses a distinctive gestural repertoire, and one that is all the more extensive when not only the fingers, but the arms and the trunk, are importantly involved. Moreover, the performing technique proper to each instrument guides and inspires the creation of music written for it. Finally, the orchestra, as a grand instrument on which the conductor plays or through which he brings forth music, might also be seen as the site of performing gestures, though ones more abstract than the gestures attaching to individual instruments.

Keywords

• body
• creation
• expressivity
• gesture
• orchestra
• musical instrument