Talks
This is a list of my oral communications. It is organised as :
- Forthcoming talks ;
- (Past) lectures and conferences ;
- (Past) papers at scientific meetings.
Forthcoming talks
2011 « Comme un boyard dans son hélicoptère ». Orgueil, morale et ironie dans les musiques de fête en Roumanie
Invited paper at the workshop « Morale et Cognition: les émotions ». Nanterre University, MAE, 3rd floor, room 308. 25th of November 2011.
Organized by Monica Heintz and Isabelle Rivoal.
2012 Sonic beings? The ontologies of musical agency
Panel at EASA 2012 (Nanterre University, France, 10/07/2012 – 13/07/2012)
Convenors: Victor A. Stoichiţă / Bernd Brabec de Mori (University of Graz, Phonogrammarchiv Vienna)
Short abstract
This panel brings together ethnographic accounts of "human" and "nonhuman" interactions in sonic constructions such as music. The aim is to compare different ontologies of the sound realm, and see whether it can host particular forms of agency, which are not encountered otherwise.
Long abstract
Anthropologists know well that music is an efficient ingredient in various kinds of interactions. It has been described as an enhancer of emotions, of specific forms of consciousness, of social and personal identities. Its presence is also mandatory in many rituals around the world. Social sciences usually assume that this efficiency is merely a transformation of human agencies. In this view, music is just another way for humans to relate, ultimately, to each other. However, practitioners and audiences often have different accounts.
Their musical experiences seem populated by "human" but also "nonhuman" entities: gods, spirits, animals, and a range of other sonic characters whose ontological status is uncertain, but which seem, at times, to have an agency of their own. In this view, music is not just a human business but an environment which allows interactions between different layers of reality and different kinds of beings.
What are the ontologies of sound underlying these interactions? Are there, for example, social agents which can only be encountered in sound? Can music host relations which would be impossible otherwise? General frameworks have been proposed to rethink agency beyond divides such as "nature-culture" or "human-nonhuman" (Gell, Latour, Descola, Viveiros de Castro). Can these paradigms account for musical interactions?
Details of the panel and accepted papers: http://www.nomadit.co.uk/easa/easa2012/panels.php5?PanelID=1318
Feel free to email me for any inquiry on this topic.
Lectures and conferences
2011 De la structure à la fantaisie, selon les musiciens professionnels tsiganes de Roumanie
Invited lecture at the seminar "Modélisation des savoirs musicaux relevant de l'oralité", organised by March Chemillier at the E.H.E.S.S., Paris.
This lecture was filmed and the videos are available on the seminar's web page.
2011 Who's the big boss? Musical agency in live manele performances.
Keynote paper at the IX edition of the Forum Romania. Vienna University / Austrian Academy of Sciences. 6-9 October 2011.
2010 Să fructifici valoarea sunetului. Inteligenţa, emoţii şi şmecherie în gândriea lăutarilor.
Opening conference of the congress of the Romanian Society for Cultural Anthropology (SACR), Bucharest 24/09.
2010 Fabricants d'émotion. Musique et malice dans un village tsigane de Roumanie.
Musée du Quai Branly, 30/05.
2010 Fabricanţi de emoţie : despre şmecherie şi creativitate în gândirea lăutarilor.
Muzeul Ţăranului Român, Bucharest, 21/04.
2009 “Gypsy music” lectures
Cité de la musique (Paris). Three conferences on Gypsy music for the general public: virtuoso brass bands from Moldavia / new amplified musics / portrait of a Gypsy singer. 24/11, 1/12, 8/12.
2009 Fieldwork in ethnomusicology
Faculty of Humanities of the Charles University, Prague. Two-day workshop on fieldwork interactions in ethnomusicological research.
2009 "Si Brăiloiu avait su… La ruse, les Tsiganes et le diable dans le folklore roumain"
Ethnography museum of Geneve (Switzerland).
2008 Musical transcription in ethnomusicology
Faculty of Humanities of the Charles University, Prague. Two-day workshop on the visualisation of musical structures.
2007-08 Lectures on virtuosity in traditional music.
University Paris VIII (seven lectures between 2007 and 2008).
2005 Qu’est-ce qu’une mélodie ? Identité, différence et créativité dans un répertoire de musiciens professionnels (Zece Prăjini – Roumanie).
University Paul Valéry, Montpellier.
2004 Identités ethno-musicales dans un village de lăutari Tsiganes (Zece Prăjini – Roumanie).
University Paul Valéry, Montpellier.
2003 Musique et textiles: esthétiques croisées dans les villages roumains
University Paul Valéry, Montpellier
2001-03 Entre science et poésie: la musique populaire vue par Béla Bartók
Universities of Tours (2001, 2002), Lille (2002), Saint-Denis (2003).
Papers at scientific meetings
2011 “Vocal instruments” and other sonic artefacts in the performances of Gypsy singers in Romania.
ICTM 2011 (World conference). In panel "Speak, shout, weep, sing. The voice and the boundaries of music", convened by Victor A. Stoichiţă.
2004 "A Matter of Attitude : Self-Definition of Identity in a Village of Gypsy Professional Musicians (Zece Prăjini – Romania)".
Third meeting of the Study Group "Music and Minorities" of the International Council for Traditional Music, Roč (Croatia).
2005 "Romany Music: What it Is, How we Approach it, What We Can Say About it"
Round table at the International Council for Traditional Music (World Conference), Sheffield. Convened by Speranţa Rădulescu.
2005 "Gypsiness, Music and Power: Romanian Feasts as Carnivals"
Symposium on Gypsy Music, University of Glasgow.
2006 "Musique et artefacts"
Annual meeting of the French Society for Ethnomusicology.
2006 "Pixels sonores et musiques du monde: les ethnomusicologues face aux échantillonneurs"
Pixel workshop, Musée du Quai Branly, Paris.
2006 "Ruser et apprendre"
Conference on music and learning, IRCAM, Paris.
2006 "Music in progress"
Conference on music and memory, École supérieure de physique et de chimie industrielles (ESPCI), Paris.
2006 "Indexing and comparing audio/video sequences"
International Council for Traditional Music, meeting of the study group on ethnochoreology, Cluj (Romania).
2007 "Musique et technique"
Annual meeting of the French Society for Ethnomusicology.
2007 "Standing still, moving others. A look at visible professionalism in Romania"
International Council for Traditional Music (World conference), Wien. In panel "Reflections on posture and attitude in music and dance performance", convened by Christine Guillebaud and Victor A. Stoichiţă.
2008 "Pièges mélodiques. Sur la virtuosité musicale et tissée" [Melodic traps. About musical and woven virtuosity]
Workshop on Virtuosity: the sublime adventure of technique (Virtuosité ou les sublimes aventures de la technique), Musée du Quai Branly.
2009 "’Intelligent thieves’. The ethics of musical creativity according to Gypsy professional musicans".
International conference on Author’s rights and oral traditions: customs, law and ethics, Nuoro (Sardegna/Italy).
2009 "Autour de la création musicale collective" [On collective musical creation].
Annual meeting of the French Society for Ethnomusicology.
2010 Chants tsiganes de Roumanie, la fantaisie musicale au coeur d'un ouvrage pédagogique.
Symposium Music Orality Roots Europe (MORE), Cité de la Musique, 04/12.
2010 "Singing the Bakchich: The Aesthetics of Prestige in the Practice of Gypsy Popular Musicians”
Cultures of Indebtedness: Displacements of Value in Eastern Europe, New Europe College, Bucharest, January 22-23.
2010 with Estelle Amy de la Bretèque (CNRS – CREM/LESC) : “Musics of the new times. Romanian manele and Armenian rabiz as icons of post-communist changes”
The Balkans and the Caucasus. Parallel processes in the historical destiny, mentality, culture, and future trends on the opposite sides of the Black Sea,New Europe College, Bucharest, April 12-13.
2010 Technologies of musical enchantment: understanding manele in neo-liberal Romania
EASA 2010, Maynooth 26/08. In workshop "Crises, imagination, and beyond: bringing aesthetics back into the anthropology of (popular) music", convened by Markus Verne and Hauke Dorsch.