‘Jolivet’s Rameau: Theory, Practice and Temporal Interplay’

Mawer, Deborah (2018) ‘Jolivet’s Rameau: Theory, Practice and Temporal Interplay’. In: Historical Interplay in French Music and Culture, 1860-1960. Routledge, London and New York, pp. 176-197. ISBN ISBN 9781472474759; 9781315586847 (ebk)

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Abstract

Jolivet is often related to a non-Western otherness, but this French-on-French mapping examines how, in a wartime essay, the composer portrays his forebear Rameau and, in so doing, what he says about himself. A loosely symmetrical form (chiasmus) leads contextually from philosophies of temporality, especially à la Bergson, through an overview of Jolivet’s wartime theoretical-historical writings and Rameau’s theoretical work, to the essay in question. A close reading of Jolivet on Rameau develops the special concern with music theory and theory–practice relations (Bourdieu-like), and extends through an eighteenth-century historicity, to Jolivet’s engagement here with temporal interplay. Mawer argues that, overall, despite a measure of hagiography, Jolivet creates an impressively insightful, knowledgeable account of his predecessor, in part because ‘subject’ and ‘object’ are so well matched. Inevitably, however, some re-inflection occurs in overplaying intuition and spirituality, so betraying his own authorial priorities. Most interesting is Jolivet’s perception that Rameau had time to pursue his discoveries thoroughly: it is salutary that, as early as 1946, Jolivet felt hurried – something regarded typically as a bane of modern postmillennial lives.

Item Type:	Book Section
Dates:	Date Event 2018 UNSPECIFIED
Subjects:	CAH25 - design, and creative and performing arts > CAH25-02 - performing arts > CAH25-02-02 - music
Depositing User:	Deborah Mawer
Date Deposited:	09 Apr 2018 09:30
Last Modified:	03 Mar 2022 15:59
URI:	https://www.open-access.bcu.ac.uk/id/eprint/5715

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