Publications
A list of the texts I have published, with links to summaries, full versions, and related audiovisual documents.
Items are ordered as :
- Books (where you will also find the full text of my doctoral thesis) ;
- Articles ;
- Reviews and translations ;
- Other contributions.
Books
2010 Chants tsiganes de Roumanie
Paris: Cité de la Musique. 80 pages and audio CD.
This book is the first of a series published by the Cité de la Musique, and supervised by Luciana Penna Diaw. It aims to provide pedagogic materials in an ethnomusicological spirit, primarily for music teachers.
After a general introduction on rromani (Gypsy) history and culture, this book presents eight samples of the repertoire of an amateur Rroma singer from a village near Bucharest. The songs are translated and analyzed, and pedagogic pathways are described. An audio CD presents the referenced songs and their variants, performed by various Gypsy musicians. The overall intent is to illustrate notions of freedom, wit and fantasy, which are important in many Gypsy communities in Romania. The challenge of the book is to bring these notions in range of French music teachers, to help them build meaningful sessions of musical practice with their pupils.
2008 Fabricants d'émotion
Nanterre: Société d'ethnologie. 230 pages and multimedia DVD.
The book concentrates the work developped in my doctoral thesis. By combining ethnography with musical analysis, I have tried to shed a light on concepts of «cunning» and «slyness», as seen by Rroma professional musicians in Romania. The book focuses on the link which binds cleverness to a certain conception of pleasure, emotion and group belonging. It is targetted at a large audience. Many visual, musical and interactive documents are presented on the attached DVD.
The book can be ordered in most French bookstores, and online here.
A detailed description is available below (in French). Alternatively, the English summary can be downloaded here.
2006 L'art de la feinte (doctoral thesis)
Defended in december 2006 at University Paris Ouest Nanterre la Defense. This thesis was awarded the highest distinction by French academic conventions ("Mention très honorable, avec les félicitations du jury à l’unanimité").
I worked in Zece Prăjini, a Rroma (Gypsy) village at the center of the Moldavian region, where most men are professional musicians. Drawing on an innovative combination of ethnography and musical analysis, the thesis interogates the notions of cunning (şmecherie) and slyness (ciorănie), which are central to villagers’ accounts of their music making and their daily life.
Full text and some audiovisual documents available here.
Articles
2011 (forth.) with E. Amy de la Bretèque, “Musics of the new times Romanian manele and Armenian rabiz as icons of post-communist changes”
The Balkans and the Caucasus, Ivan Biliarsky and Ovidiu Cristea (eds), Cambridge Scholars Publishing [Accepted].
2011 (forth.) "The squire in the helicopter. Parody and irony in Romanian popular music"
Yearbook of the New Europe College, 2009-2010. [Accepted]
During academic year 2009-2010, I enjoyed a Fellowship at the New Europe College in Bucharest. This allowed me to carry fieldwork in the capital, on a popular music genre called manele. The NEC Yearbook will publish my first paper on this research. It deals with the ironic and parodic aspects of manele.
Audiovisual documents available.
2011 with Emmanuel Grimaud and Graham Jones, "Virtuosité ou les sublimes aventures de la technique"
Ateliers d'anthropologie nº35. Full text available online: http://ateliers.revues.org/8838
2011 "Entre prouesse et dérision. L'imitation bruitiste dans le folklore américain au début du XXe siècle"
Ateliers d'anthropologie nº 35. Full text and audiovisual documents available online: http://ateliers.revues.org/8793
2011 "Quand la mélodie ruse. L’enchantement musical et ses acteurs"
Humains, non humains : Comment repeupler les sciences sociales, ed. Sophie Houdart and Olivier Thiery. Paris: La Découverte, p. 311-320.
2010 with C. Guillebaud and J. Mallet : "Ethnographies du copyright. Musiques et frontières de l'appartenance"
Gradhiva 12, p. 5-19.
2010 "Les 'voleurs intelligents' ou l'éthique de la créativité selon les musiciens professionnels tsiganes de Roumanie" (2010)
Gradhiva 12, p. 81-95.
Audiovisual documents available.
2010 "Chants Tsiganes de Roumanie. La fantaisie au coeur d'un ouvrage pédagogique"
Proceedings of the symposium MORE (Music Orality Roots Europe), Cité de la Musique.
Full text available here.
2010 "De solides vérités. Ordre et approximation dans la pratique des musiciens tsiganes de Roumanie"
Études tsiganes, n°38.
2010 "Les pantoufles de Cendrillon. Une cordonnerie polémique"
Sang Bleu n° 5, p. 208-210.
2009 "Pensée motivique et pièges à pensée. Musique, tissage et œufs de Pâques en Moldavie"
L'Homme n°192, 23-38.
Audiovisual documents available.
2009 "Constantin Brăiloiu et la création musicale collective"
Mémoire vive. Hommages à Constantin Brăiloiu, Laurent Aubert (éd.), Gollion/Paris: Infolio.
2008 with Bernard Lortat-Jacob : "La musique en action"
Pour la Science, 373, november 2008, p. 42-44.
Full text available.
2008 "Ruse, système et opportunité"
Cahiers d'ethnomusicologie 21: "Performances". p. 51-65.
Full text and audio recording available.
2006 "A Matter of Attitude. Gypsiness and style in Zece Prăjini (Romania)"
Shared Music and Minority Identities, Proceedings of the 3rd Meeting of the Study Group "Music and Minorities" of the International Folk Music Council, ed. by Naila Ceribasic and Erica Haskell, Zagreb: Institute of Ethnology and Folklore Research, p. 189-200.
Full text and audiovisual documents available.
2001 "Béla Bartók : aspects subjectifs de l'imprégnation folklorique"
Analyse Musicale 41: 55-65.
Full text available here.
Reviews and translations
2010 "Les manele: symbole de la 'décadence'" (by Speranţa Rădulescu)
Translated from Romanian for Études tsiganes 38: 172-176.
2008 "Speranţa Rădulescu: Chats about Gypsy Music"
Cahiers d'ethnomusicologie 21: "Performances".
2002 "Roumanie : Réédition de la collection Alan Lomax"
Cahier des Musiques Traditionnelles 15: 216-218.
Other contributions
2008 Emission de radio
Le 15 juillet 2008, je fus invité à participer à l'émission "Des oreilles avec des trous... (dedans)". Elle fut animée par André Brémo, André Gaillochet, André de la Sayette, et réalisée par André Estival pour Radio Libertaire et Radio Bazarnaom.