Contemporary Music Colors New York with French Accents

Through March 27, the "Sounds French" festival presents twenty living French composers, performed by New York ensembles and orchestras, little used to their techniques and unconventional aesthetics.  

The situation is ironic:  France, famous for its perpetual strikes, particularly in the cultural sector, presents in New York, from March 1 to 27, "Sounds French," a springtide festival of French music—just at the time that eighteen of the nineteen Broadway theaters are closed for a musicians' union strike (Le Monde, March 11).

The festival's logo, created by Philippe Apeloig, a French graphic designer who is teaching in New York, sets the mood:  modern, a little aggressive, somewhere between the humorous insults of Captain Haddock [a derisory character in Hergé’s popular French comic book Adventures of Tintin —transl.] and the look of an East Village hipster.  Programming was the responsibility of Eric de Visscher (artistic director of the IRCAM, who has recently announced his resignation from the Parisian institution), and the festival was coordinated by Emmanuel Morlet (head of the music division of Cultural Srvices at the French Embassy), with the support of AFAA ( l'Association française d'action artistique).

The festival, which has been in preparation for months with its New York partners, finds itself fortuitously scheduled during one of the most delicate episodes of Franco-American relations.  France is not only censured for its politics vis-à-vis Iraq, but is the object of relentless reprimands for its "arrogant" attitude and its inclination to generously finance its culture overseas, while many American musical institutions only function through private support, often garnered through burdensome fund-raising campaigns. 

"It's true that Cultural Services has received some disagreeable calls and letters," notes Emmanuel Morlet, "but, in fact, the critics miss their target, for this festival is mainly financed by American sources.  We're working in a true collaboration, as we always do, with New York institutions.  It's more important to incite the desire, rather than to force it."

Two and a half years ago, a meeting at Cultural Services at the embassy brought together the principal New York institutions:  alternative venues (the Kitchen, Engine 27, Tonic), big halls (Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center) and smaller ones (Miller Theater), contemporary music ensembles (the Ensemble Sospeso, Argento Chamber Ensemble), intellectual centers (92nd Street Y) and even a church, distinguished in New York for its outstanding seasons of sacred music (St. Ignatius Loyola).

"We were encouraged, and sustained, by the presence of Pierre Boulez, composer in residence at Carnegie Hall, and by the performance of his work Répons," explains Eric de Visscher. "But for all this, the festival isn't devoted to followers of Boulez.  I aimed for the widest range possible, from Luc Ferrari to Gérard Pesson, from Thierry Escaich to Philippe Manoury.  The contemporary music ensembles in New York are strong enthusiasts of European music.  The situation is also abetted by the presence here of the French composer  Tristan Murail, who is a composition professor at Columbia, which has really resulted in disseminating a large part of post-1970 French music, particularly the spectral aesthetic."

At the entrance to Columbia University, on Broadway, the Miller Theater, under the direction of the vivacious George Steel, has become the most innovative sites of contemporary music programming in the city, and one of the most important in the United States.  "The French are very persistent in their relationship with us, which is certainly not a bad thing," George Steele said. "For example, they really insisted that our concert of Gérard Grisey's music, which we had originally scheduled for October, be postponed until March, in order to integrate it into the programming of the festival.  But I don't think that the label "Sounds French" will really, as far as we're concerned, bring in another audience.  Our public loves great new music, whether French or other.  In any case, I didn't receive special financial support.  On the other hand, I think it's wonderful that the festival has served to dismantle certain cultural formations.  For example, I really knew very little of Tristan Murail's music, in spite of the fact that he works next door."

Kirk Noreen is the co-director of the Ensemble Sospeso, one of the rare groups of contemporary music in North America to devote itself to postwar French music.  "We performed a retrospective of the music of Marc-André Dalbavie in 1998, and we just discovered the pleasure of that of Bruno Mantovani.  We will continue to perform this repertoire, with or without the support of French Cultural Services, simply because it's great music.  Contemporary music in Europe often seems more interesting to me than that in the United States right now, where a young composer developing a challenging personal language, not primarily interested in a commercial career, will find no support.  The current system of support essentially means that one must either write in a very traditional aesthetic, or have private means."

The young conductor and composer Michel Galante, a student of Tristan Murail at Columbia, echoes Noreen's sentiments.  He made the choice to work with Murail, rather than continuing past studies with more traditionalist composers like Christopher Rouse or John Corigliano.  "My group is very young, and we have to work for nothing, because it's difficult in America right now to impose little-known aesthetics.  For many Americans, contemporary French music means Boulez and Dutilleux. The musicians are young, and very skilled, but they must familiarize themselves with the techniques of Gérard Pesson or Gérard Grisey."

Tristan Murail, who arrived in the States three years ago, recognizes this.  "The level of composition departments in universities here is, in general, somewhat weak, and remains trapped in the shackles of an outmoded aesthetic.  The musicians here are often of an extremely high caliber, but they have little contact with recent instrumental technique quite familiar to their European colleagues.  What is overwhelming is the curiosity of students—even if some of them come to see me while really wishing to orchestrate on Broadway!" 

Translated by Joshua Cody. 

EN FRANCAIS

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