Colette MOUREY : Musical Intelligence.
DétailsÉcrit par Edith WeberCatégorie : Book March 2016
1 vol Crans-Montana (Suisse), Éditions Marc Reift (www.reift.ch). (EMR 18752), 58 p. + Catalog of the Collection C. Mourey (3 p.)
From the point of view that musical intelligence is “doubly rational and intuitive” and that “hearing is both subjective and objective,” Colette Mourey, musicologist, teacher and guitarist, notes that music, “close linguistic intelligence but also of the scientific mind “(p.54) requires” sharpened, forged by the will “attention and to be supported for a long time.
Using relevant musical examples, numerous diagrams, excerpts of scores and diagrams – while recalling that musical thought is abstract and solicits global body listening and that emotions are associated with intelligence – , the author distinguishes three types.
First, rhythmic intelligence is the foundation of oral cultures (ie primitive dances, binary and ternary metrics leading to “a-metrics” in contemporary music, and is dependent on vibrational effects and pulsation levels (beats of heart, algorithms), bipartism (open / closed) and tripartism (AB A ‘), the music has a “potential for liberation” (p. 27).
Second, grafting on rhythmic intelligence, melodic intelligence needs musical scales (or modes). In the case of improvisation, the musician uses motifs, can adorn them but must respect the architecture of the mode. In the case of written music, the composer chooses the scale that the performer will have to recognize. The author recalls the historical evolution: modality and modes of Church in the Middle Ages; Modalism (major / minor) between 1750 and 1820; enlargement resulting in polytonality, atonality and dodecaphonism since the end of the 19th century. The hierarchy of degrees, the choice of registers (low, medium, high) contribute to the expressiveness and the effects of tension through the structure of the musical phrase (exposure, transition, development); it can be stable or modulating.
Thirdly, harmonic intelligence, experiencing a rather complex development in Western music, is a “scientific combinatorial” between harmony and counterpoint, appealing to a principal voice and counter-arguments, while harmony – while taking into account the melody – can exploit functional bass and arpeggio chords. The orchestration provides the colors and the stamps. Polyphonic hearing and perception solicit thought, emotion, gesture and require sustained concentration. Perception, both conceptual and analytic, will become listened to, call for discrimination, lead to the discovery of the world and encourage a return to oneself.
These are – essentially going as close as possible to the author’s own terms and definitions – the main directions of this publication, resulting from extensive experience, a strong sense of observation and discussion. Colette Mourey relies in part on the work of Howard Gardner (1983) on multiple intelligences. It has the merit of extending the theories of perception launched around 1960 by Robert Francès, then Michel Imberty, Arlette Zenatti … and demonstrates how these three types of musical intelligence associated with a voluntaristic perception are complementary and intertwined. In fact, this publication of Editions Marc Reift is only a beginning, and the author announces other issues (at Delatour France). To be continued.
