In relation to the work and the creation, from which they often proceed, the writings of composers are fundamental for understanding music of the twentieth century.
Composers’ writings, tied to (and often stemming from) their works and creative process, are key to the understanding of 20th-century music. When Charles Baudelaire wrote “It is impossible that a poet does not contain a critic,” he enunciated, for the first time, the requirement that the artist reason their art and discover the obscure laws by virtue of which they write. Composers’ writing may be very diverse in nature, from biographical to critical, theoretical, aesthetic, genealogical, marking out the creative paths of a work still in progress or engaging in analytical introspection—these writings anyway renew the concepts and methods of discourses on music. Laurent Feneyrou has addressed those issues in his editing and introducing of several collected writings volumes from the following composers: Jean Barraqué, Giacomo Manzoni, Luigi Nono, Louis Saguer, Salvatore Sciarrino, and most recently Frédéric Durieux.
IRCAM's Team: Analysis of Musical Practices team.
Start date : 2008
