Rationalizing Culture: IRCAM, Boulez, and the Institutionalization of the Musical Avant-Garde (Assoc

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Reduce everything to dualities; 4. Avoid qualifiers that might show the situation to be more complicated than the position expressed. Born does all these things almost constantly. No doubt this helped her maneuver herself into a well-pd 'educator's' position but it doesn't do much to enhance the value of her opinion , wch she doesn't present as such, for me. Born is all about avant-garde vs pop, modernist vs post-modernist, serialist vs anti-serialist — but is everything so clearly divided? The "world of serious composition" is far more complex than the "split" she describes. As such, they try to ride the trends that will enhance their careers.

Hermann, Georgina Born's Rationalizing Culture

Born's statement reminds me of the typical: In other words, the pseudo-intellectual process involves: I hope it's obvious that there aren't just 2 possibilities in either politics or music. Ok, I'll accept that as a duality — but I'm open to other opinions. To pull a quasi- reductio ad absurdum here, that's like saying there are only 2 notes: That wd make me relevant to the period under discussion.

Or is it Post-Modernist? Is it Serialist or is it Anti-Serialist? To me, it's none-of-the-above. I prefer M Usic, the root word is "use". Low Classical Usic is M Usic for people who don't really fit into the conservatory, into the academy. There's even an "Ordinary Piano Solo" on there: But how "ordinary" is it really? What boxes does it fit into?

The visuals are almost entirely black. Musically, it doesn't sound that exceptional. It probably wdn't rub a tonalist the wrong way. But a moment's thought wd make a person realize that the technique used to trigger the sounds on a guitar neck are far more limited in terms of harmony than they are on a keyboard.

That cuts out various string-player techniques like glissandi. The point is that the 'ordinariness' isn't so 'ordinary' after all. Or what about "cellfeed 01", https: The full review is here: Dec 25, Max rated it liked it. Dec 04, Christopher rated it liked it. In Born, a musician-cum-ethnographer spent a year observing the institute, and this expanded version of her subsequent Ph. D thesis was published in Fans of contemporary music--and I'm one--will be pleased to have the opportunity to learn something of the structure and day-to-day life of IRCAM. Born details the bureacratic hierarchy, the various types of employees, and the "squatters", composers entering after-hours to use the centre's equipment and hoping to be established workers there.

She talks about typical visits by composers who come to be trained and to realise a piece at Ircam, and about the use of the fearsome 4X machine, IRCAM's early technological breakthrough.

Born could not use real names in the preparation of her thesis, so instead people are referred to with random initials or with general attributes, but it's not particularly challenging to guess who is who. Among the author's ethnographic themes are the phenomenon of the avant-garde the "outsiders" becoming subsidized by the government "the Establishment" and IRCAM's early shift from composer-scientist equality to scientists at the service of composers. Born mixes what should be a dispassionate report about the sociology of IRCAM with her own opinions on contemporary music, which she seems to loathe immensely.

Right from the beginning she writes that she left the conservatory to play in rock bands because she didn't like modern styles.

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In the chapter on music, while reporting the discussions of some composers on their inspirations, she even suggests that what they are doing isn't real music at all. Throughout Born writes in such a way as to make the reader think that IRCAM is a worthless institution on the verge of being shut down. Granted, IRCAM took a while to get off the ground, and if one goes only by Born's chronicle, one might get the impression that it's not a terribly productive place. In all of the technology--a couple of huge servers--seems to be constantly on the fritz and without sufficient processing power for all users, but within a couple of years the centre transitioned to PCs and work gets along fine.

Born does dedicate a few pages in the last chapter to later events in IRCAM, but she still ends the book in a critical fashion, not acknowledging any of the great achievements of the centre. Hand-in-hand with this are snipes at Boulez, whom Born seems to think a tyrant who holds music back instead of a benevolent dictator who has done so much to advance the art.

At least there's little outright sniping at him here--on a recent radio BBC programme she accused him of "stealing" French music funds instead of really deserving them--but there is nonetheless a serious lack of respect.

It can be informative. Mar 24, Alex Johnston rated it it was amazing. The previous and highly bizarre review of this book gives a highly inaccurate impression of what it's like to read. It's an ethnographic analysis of how the place works and how its public statements and actual practice do not harmonise with each other. The previous reviewer says that Born seems to think that Boulez is a 'tyrant', which is not a word she ever uses, and ignores the fact that the book provides plenty of documentation for the The previous and highly bizarre review of this book gives a highly inaccurate impression of what it's like to read.

The previous reviewer says that Born seems to think that Boulez is a 'tyrant', which is not a word she ever uses, and ignores the fact that the book provides plenty of documentation for the ways in which Boulez has tended to centralise all authority in IRCAM to himself, while publicly and disingenuously proclaiming in Barthesian fashion that he has no authority at all.

Born's 'bias against great music' exists in the reviewer's imagination; plenty of trained classical musicians stop playing classical music and turn to something else, but it doesn't mean that they hate great music. Born herself abandoned classical music to be a significant player in the 70s art-rock scene, first with Henry Cow and later with Art Bears and other important, politically-charged bands - she is one of the few important academics to have played a killer bass line, on the Art Bears' song 'In Two Minds'.

Nowhere in this does Born suggest that Boulez is not a great composer, but that's because the book is working on a higher level than, say, Dominique Jameux's authorised biography of Boulez. The most readily available commentary in English devoted to Boulez -- such as the Symposium edited by Glock, or the Jameux book -- are informative and useful up to a point, but basically they serve to support Boulez's authority, and while the Symposium has some interestingly dissenting views about Boulez's work and at least tries to make some assessment of what he's done, the Jameux book is embarrassingly uncritical.

The previous review of this book is entirely within the fanboy tradition, in that it can't bear to hear anything that might tarnish the image of the composer as genius.

I love and admire Boulez's music, but I deplore much of his practice as an administrator, as an impresario and as a commentator, and Born's book is a refreshing counterbalance to the generally hagiographical tone of most Boulez commentary in that it assesses the actual cost of his activities and - given the obvious and massive slackening-off of his compositional output since the 60s - questions the extent to which the expressed motives for much of his activity harmonise with the actual results that he's achieved. Keith rated it really liked it Feb 21, Izzy Gibbin rated it it was amazing Aug 14, Kiersten rated it it was ok Sep 10, Christopher Delamater rated it it was amazing Apr 30, Cblehart rated it really liked it Jan 31, Dena rated it it was amazing Jun 03, James May rated it it was amazing Jul 03, Herb rated it liked it Aug 13, Marcy rated it it was ok Jun 18, Bill rated it really liked it Dec 13, Monika rated it it was ok Oct 27, Mark Sweeney rated it really liked it Jun 22, Audrey Troutt rated it it was amazing May 06, Xavier De rated it liked it Aug 13, J rated it really liked it Jun 07, Josh Ronsen rated it liked it Aug 29, Madison rated it really liked it Dec 17, Elizabeth rated it it was ok Apr 28, Daniel marked it as to-read Feb 08, Shawn marked it as to-read Apr 29, Dogra added it Feb 05, Tim added it Dec 15, Chris marked it as to-read May 19, Nicholas Knouf marked it as to-read Jul 08, Bernardo Barros marked it as to-read Feb 17, Maria is currently reading it Nov 11, Phillip Golub marked it as to-read Feb 27, Raul marked it as to-read Mar 12, Isaac Stevenson marked it as to-read Mar 17, Zixiang Hong marked it as to-read Apr 05, Lakatosi marked it as to-read Oct 08, Tam Nguyen marked it as to-read Oct 19, Customers who bought this item also bought.

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A Power Stronger Than Itself: Treatise on Musical Objects: Music, Sound and Space: Transformations of Public and Private Experience. Music after the Fall: Modern Composition and Culture since Experimental Music Since Customers who viewed this item also viewed. From the Inside Flap "Shows what can be learned from an in-depth study of a very remarkable cultural institution. Related Video Shorts 0 Upload your video. Try the Kindle edition and experience these great reading features: Share your thoughts with other customers.

Write a customer review. There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later. If you know anything about the French contemporary music scene over the last 30 years or so, or even about the American contemporary music scene during the same period, you'll find this fascinating.

I'm not sure of the interest for anyone outside of that international, yet somewhat small and inbred world. Those inside it will have fund decoding the aliases given to some recognizable French and American musical figures, and will delight as the "good guys" espousing small, portable and personal music systems go up against those who insisted that giant mainframe computers which can only be maintained by large organizations with big budgets!

And I suspect that anyone in the arts administration biz will enjoy the description of the battles for power, influence, and money. As a composer who uses technology extensively, I have found this book an absolute delight.

When I first heard of it, many years ago, I thought, "That's for me. By the way, another reviewer identified a black American composer as Alvin Singleton, which I had not considered.

I just assumed it had to be George Lewis, but I'll have to go back and read this more carefully. Trying to figure out who is who is a large part of the fun. It's a classic, as far as I am concerned. In Born, a musician-cum-ethnographer spent a year observing the institute, and this expanded version of her subsequent Ph. D thesis was published in Fans of contemporary music--and I'm one--will be pleased to have the opportunity to learn something of the structure and day-to-day life of IRCAM.

Rationalizing Culture: IRCAM, Boulez, and the Institutionalization of the Musical Avant-Garde

Born details the bureacratic hierarchy, the various types of employees, and the "squatters", composers entering after-hours to use the centre's equipment and hoping to be established workers there. She talks about typical visits by composers who come to be trained and to realise a piece at Ircam, and about the use of the fearsome 4X machine, IRCAM's early technological breakthrough. Born could not use real names in the preparation of her thesis, so instead people are referred to with random initials or with general attributes, but it's not particularly challenging to guess who is who.

Among the author's ethnographic themes are the phenomenon of the avant-garde the "outsiders" becoming subsidized by the government "the Establishment" and IRCAM's early shift from composer-scientist equality to scientists at the service of composers. Born mixes what should be a dispassionate report about the sociology of IRCAM with her own opinions on contemporary music, which she seems to loathe immensely.

Right from the beginning she writes that she left the conservatory to play in rock bands because she didn't like modern styles. In the chapter on music, while reporting the discussions of some composers on their inspirations, she even suggests that what they are doing isn't real music at all. Throughout Born writes in such a way as to make the reader think that IRCAM is a worthless institution on the verge of being shut down.

Granted, IRCAM took a while to get off the ground, and if one goes only by Born's chronicle, one might get the impression that it's not a terribly productive place. In all of the technology--a couple of huge servers--seems to be constantly on the fritz and without sufficient processing power for all users, but within a couple of years the centre transitioned to PCs and work gets along fine. Born does dedicate a few pages in the last chapter to later events in IRCAM, but she still ends the book in a critical fashion, not acknowledging any of the great achievements of the centre.

Hand-in-hand with this are snipes at Boulez, whom Born seems to think a tyrant who holds music back instead of a benevolent dictator who has done so much to advance the art.

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