Micheline Coulombe Saint-Marcoux: Impulsion (CD): liner notes

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Impulsion
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Her electroacoustic works

by Andra McCartney |imed_0159-0001|

“What is the composer’s attitude toward this technique? It is with a completely new and liberated spirit that he must make the electroacoustic approach to composition, and above all not forget that it is easier to learn how to turn a knob than to know why he should turn it. The difficulty does not lie in controlling the machine technically, but rather in controlling his reflexes when in front of the machine. With electroacoustic music, the composer maintains a constant relationship with the sound material; his direct control of it allows him to verify that this actions have given the desired results. The composer can also make use of the distance of the listener, just as the painter can step back from the canvas in order to see it better. Electroacoustic music is therefore a continuous fusion of doing and hearing, a permanent equilibrium between the composer’s intention (what is in his head) and the result (what is on the tape).” (Coulombe Saint-Marcoux, Le Devoir, June 27, 1970)

Micheline Coulombe Saint-Marcoux’s approach to electroacoustic music was important to the development of the form in several significant areas: exploration of the voice as an instrument, integration of electroacoustics with other artistic disciplines, reflection on the role of women composers, and experimentation with spatial trajectories to make the movement of sound more palpable to the listener.

Coulombe Saint-Marcoux considered the voice as a fragile and important instrument. During her childhood in the Lac Saint-Jean region, she constantly listened to her family singing. She was aware of the incredible possibilities of the voice, but considered it fragile because of its connection with each person. When she was studying with Claude Champagne, he insisted that students create works for voice, and initially she wrote settings for poems by Verlaine. However, she was dissatisfied with the gap between singer and accompaniment, and wanted to integrate voice with instruments, to find points of fusion, change and rapid juxtaposition, as in Arksalalartôq. She believed in the abilities of contemporary vocalists to improvise, to re-discover the vocal freedom of children: “the most progressive music has its basis in the spontaneity of childhood” (Lamy 1971).

Another important aspect of Arksalalartôq is its use of texts by two Québécois poets, Noël Audet and Gilles Marsolais, who also collaborated with her on Makazoti, a work for voice and instrumental ensemble. Bernavir, a work for tape, also used excerpts of a poem by Audet. Her works often included texts by Québécois writers, including Paul Chamberland, France Théoret, and Nicole Brossard. Her approach to their work was to consider both the meaning of the words, as well as their less denotative but emotionally rich sounds and sonorities. Coulombe Saint-Marcoux was very sensitive to other artistic currents that surrounded her in Quebec: poetry, theatre, painting, and dance. She worked closely with other artists, finding that there was often a correspondence between her work and the work in progress of colleagues in other artistic fields. She believed that there is a reciprocal influence between ear and eye, and between sound and theatrical gesture.

As the quote at the beginning of this text demonstrates, Coulombe Saint-Marcoux was deeply interested in the role of the electroacoustic composer, and her relationships with technology, society and culture. She also spoke of her position as a woman composer. She was not satisfied with simple access to composition studios, but wanted a more meaningful recognition of the ideas and approaches of women. She noted that although: “society admits to the presence of women creators, societal structures do not change to allow them to live fully and with the same authority as men” (Lefebvre 1991: 80). Professor Lefebvre notes that during the 1970s, Micheline Coulombe Saint-Marcoux was the only female professor of composition in the Montréal area, and so must have felt isolated. Also, her work has rarely been performed in concert in Montréal except for one occasion a few weeks after her death in 1985 (personal communication, October 1994). Micheline Coulombe Saint-Marcoux spoke emphatically of her beliefs about the importance of being permitted a truly feminist way of life in order for women creators to live comfortably: “As the world that I inhabit does not, in my opinion, allow me a place that can be considered truly feminist, I live apart from it” (Lefebvre 1991: 80). Her assertion points out both an alienation from the situation that she experienced, as well as a determination to insist on a better and more accepting environment.

Coulombe Saint-Marcoux was strongly influenced by Iannis Xenakis, whom she met in Montréal in 1967 while he was working on the Polytope of the French pavillion at Expo ’67. It was Xenakis who recommended to Saint-Marcoux that she study modern mathematics and then work with Pierre Schaeffer at the GRM. As with Xenakis’ work, Coulombe Saint-Marcoux’s compositions are marked by blocks of sound describing sweeping trajectories through space, what she refers to as “circuits sonores” (sonic circuits). These organized sonic circuits provide a kind of linear map of timbral, harmonic, rhythmic and melodic movement for the listeners to orient themselves through the composition, making the music more palpable, touching the listeners as it arcs through space and time.

This disc presents all of Coulombe Saint-Marcoux’s electroacoustic music for tape except for Chut (1969) (with Pierre Bernard, Marcelle Deschênes, and Richard Grégoire) and Bernavir (1970), which could not be found. Her other electroacoustic works are mixed, film soundtracks, and incidental music: Trakadie (1970) for percussion and tape; Arksalalartôq (1970-71, 76) for voice, one instumentalist and tape; Alchera (1972-73) for mezzo-soprano, flute (piccolo), clarinet, trombone, violin, cello, harpsichord (Hammond organ), tape and lights; Miroirs (1975) for harpsichord and tape; Regards (1978) for oboe, clarinet, trombone, harp, piano, percussion, viola, cello, double bass and tape; Tel qu’en Lemieux (1973) film music for a film by Guy Robert; Comment Wang-Fô fut sauvé (1982-83) theatre music for a story by Marguerite Yourcenar.

Coulombe Saint-Marcoux writes, about Regards (1978): “The creator is in perpetual development, an actor constantly learning and re-learning his part. Having broken with the known world, the organized world, the everyday world, he is an active participant in a multitude of ever-varied situations, a sort of great ‘improvisation’ in which the rules of the game are based on the most elementary laws of social behaviour. It is chaos and a life of what appears to be anarchy, but an extremely rich and stimulating one in which everyone who inhabits it is never definitively defined.”

References:
Gagné, Mireille, et Maryvonne Kendergi, Gilles Potvin. Compositeurs au Quebec: Micheline Coulombe Saint-Marcoux. Montréal, QC: Centre de musique canadienne au Quebec, 1986.
Gagné, Mireille. Micheline Coulombe Saint-Marcoux ou l’art de conjuguer le mot femme. Sonances, avril 1985: 25-26.
Lamy, Suzanne. Inventer des sons nouveaux. Châtelaine, November 1971.
Lefebvre, Marie-Thérèse. Existe-t-il une musique dite féministe?. Les Batisseuses de la Cité. Congrès de l’ACFAS. Les Cahiers Scientifiques 79, 1993: 233-40.
Lefebvre, Marie-Thérèse. La création musicale des femmes au Québec. Montréal: les éditions du remue-ménage, 1991.
Potvin, Gilles. Présence de la musique électroacoustique. Le Devoir, February 3, 1979.
Richer, Lyse. Micheline Coulombe Saint-Marcoux accorde une entrevue à Lyse Richer. Anthology of Canadian Music 18. Radio Canada International, 1984: 19-22.
Coulombe Saint-Marcoux, Micheline. À la recherche d’une nouvelle écoute. Le Devoir, April 15, 1972.

Andra McCartney, Montréal [ix-01]

Micheline Coulombe Saint-Marcoux: Impulsion (CD): liner notes

Prices are in Canadian dollars — 1.00 CA$ ~ 0.98 US$ ~ 0.71 € ~ 0.65 £ ~ 88.83 ¥ ~ 1.7 AU$ ~ 5.31 DKK ~ 5.72 NOK ~ 6.92 SEK — and include handling, shipping and applicable taxes.


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