Faire chanter la parole, faire parler la musique. Généalogie d’une instauration réciproque

Abstract

There is no evidence in taking for granted the Great Divide between musica and parola: Emerging genres and practices constantly reinvent ways of redefining and connecting those entities. By presenting contrasted ways of singing words, from ethnic ritual performances to religious cult, from opera to French song or rap, this paper outlines ways in which all along history, speaking and singing have re-formed each other through contrasted relationships. Following Foucault’s plea for “genealogy” and Certeau’s concept of the “inversion of the thinkable”, it thus aims to address music history without writing it backwards by drawing on categories that themselves are products of this history. To sketch such a genealogy of its basic elements may help us rebuild our ways of making music of the past present again.