From the performer's age to his speed of execution

Time is the much repeated notion of which all those subjected to the ineluctable rhythms of their function seek to rid themselves... In music, circumstances will dictate the genre chosen which will generally serve in turn as a restorative diversion. Sometimes also as a means of escape into a formal adventure pursued with passion. Lastly, and better still, as an exercise in the perfection of an artistic leisure pursuit - think of those valorous people who cultivate a taste for the rigours of instrument practice or for patient choral gymnastics. “

Glory over immortality

For Dr Jean Starobinski, "Odysseus prefers the mortal condition, the time of ageing and of death, which is also the time of heroic acts and of glory. Calypso offers him immortality, the suspension of time in delights, an end to all peril: Odysseus tearfully spends his days looking out to sea and missing the smoke from his hearth... He rejects the enchantment which would keep him outside of time, which would halt his destiny in mid-course, in a quietude unworthy of a hero... “

In "Music, time and communication", Roger Aubert, pianist and musical director of Radio Suisse Romande, gets to the heart of things with wit and originality: "A correlation can be made, in some instances, between the performer's age and the tempo (relative speed) of the work. Toscanini, who had recorded the same orchestral work several times between 1936 and 1951, had each time adopted a faster chronometric tempo than the young Toscanini, convinced that he needed to compensate for the apparent "slowing" of his reflexes. Now, Toscanini was a highly instinctive being (...).

If we move on to Ansermet, we observe a different phenomenon: Two recordings of the "Second Nocturne" (Fêtes) by Debussy, performed twelve years apart, have the same chronometric duration, to within a second almost - quite phenomenal; they are, moreover, superimposable - which verges on the miraculous... “

Electronics do not dehumanise the musician

An observation made by Borts de Schloezer and Marina Scriabine: "Handling electroacoustic equipment does not dehumanise the musician, does not mechanise the music, but instead humanises the equipment". What is electronic music, how is it developed and for which instruments?

"The listener (to an electronic work) is obliged to break with his or her tonal or modal listening habits - to refuse therefore all auditory conditioning - in order to "penetrate" a work to the point of following the internal development of the material and the progression of the structures.“

As for the pianist and composer Jean Derbès, the abundant observations made in his "The performer's notion of time" provide food for thought, not to mention questions to which he offers answers: "Would the musician of the 20th century wish to escape the relative time represented in classical music? Will a "collective subjectivity" based on absolute time replace the "individual subjectivity" of the performer? Electronic music answers this question in the affirmative."
Derbes also explains why:

"... we are now seeing a striking acceleration of tempo: as the performer is no longer able (because only through a collective conscience will he be able to choose his own pace) to incorporate his personal beat, the pace of the work quickens to affirm the power of its technology. Hence, the notion of time contracts under the influence of the performance.”

Ami Châtelain, 1 August 1971