Robert Normandeau

Interviewed by Paul Steenhuisen
 

Robert Normandeau has long been active on the international electroacoustic music scene, composing richly layered pieces based on primarily acoustic sounds.  By stretching, contorting, mutating, bending and morphing sounds we hear every day, he constructs imagined worlds in which we sense a million shades and nuances, re-hear, and remember ourselves in a deeply self-actualizing listening process.

Beyond the highly refined techniques for developing the material (projected through a cornucopia of loudspeakers), what I find interesting about this music is the issue of the perspective of the listener - where are we in relation to this sonic landscape?  If we listen passively, from a stationary, objective point, we remain engaged in the sensuality of the sounds, yet when we allow ourselves to move with it, it is as though we have wings, and are projecting through a multidimensional field, in a manner specific to this genre of electroacoustic music.

On October 26, we have the rare opportunity to experience this first-hand in Toronto, and in preparation for this, I spoke directly with Robert Normandeau, to know his work and ideas more closely.

We walk into the performance space, sit in our chairs, cough, relax, look up and see.

RN: Nothing!  (laughs) Absolutely nothing!  This is a main idea of acousmatic music, and "Rien á Voir" (Nothing to look at) is the name of the concerts we present in Montreal.  It is a very strong statement from us to promote that kind of title. Often, when promoters realize there are not many people at their concerts, they try to turn them into more spectacular events, and we decided to go in the opposite direction, to present a very pure musical point of view.  There's no spectacle, but there is something VERY spectacular for the ears.

PS: You used the term acousmatic to describe your work.  What is acousmatic art?

RN: "Acousmatic" defines an aesthetic genre in the electroa-coustic music field, a genre described as music that uses  sound material as the source of musical inspiration.  The acousmatic music composer is an experimental music composer, working very closely with sound material, listening to it, trying to learn from it what can be developed into the musical structure.  This is very different from the classical instrumental writing process, where the music often has a form before the material comes into it.  Every single piece of acousmatic music is different, since you're working with different sound materials and each of these materials tells you something new.   The acousmatic music composer tries to explore the intrinsic nature of sounds.

PS: What is "cinema for the ear"?

RN: It's something I tried to develop in my Doctoral thesis 8 or 9 years ago, and doesn't apply to all acousmatic music. We share some essential elements with cinema, one of which is that we use a recorded medium.  In some books about cinema, people wrote that one of the basic elements is editing, putting together pieces of film that in reality would never meet.  In electroacoustic music, this is also a basic compositional technique, which allows you to put together very different elements that create their own environment.  And with cinema we share sounds from reality - we go on the street with a tape recorder and later work with the material that people recognize from their own sonic landscape, and remind them of their own experience.  Through these sounds they can reach into their own memories.

PS: And at the same time, it's not a music that is ABOUT reality.

RN: Exactly.  This is not a documentary, not at all.

PS: It seems that illusion and stepping beyond the fundamental qualities of sound materials are essential to the music.

RN: Absolutely.  This is the main difference between the acousmatic music composition process and the sound ecology/soundscape point of view.

PS: Can we listen to your music in the same way that we listen to 19th Century music?  How do you want it to be heard?

RN: The listener has to be open-minded.  This music is probably easier to listen to than contemporary instrumental music, and for a very simple reason.  If you think about instrumental music, it has been evolving over a very long period of time, in a very complex way, and with a sophisticated and complicated language, which is at some point very difficult to understand.  In acousmatic music, there is something that every single listener can relate to, because they can find something that is common to their own sonic experience on a day to day basis.  People can establish a close relationship with sounds because they recognize something about themselves.  Because of these points of reference, a listener can enter into the work more easily.

But this is by no means simple music.

RN: Since I work on my pieces over a very long period of time, if they are too simple, I myself would be bored, and I am my first listener.  Because of that I build many layers, so if people listen to it more than one time they will find more than just the basic level.  Embedded in this is also my feeling that as contemporary composers we have to seduce the audience.

PS: Is this program music?  Is there a narrative?

RN: At some point, for me as a composer, it is always related to program music.  The listener doesn't have to know about a particular story or narrative, but it's a way of working, like the choice of sound materials.  The listener will notice that the piece is built around a limited collection of sound materials, but they will ultimately build their own story, it doesn't have to be mine.  I want that openness, as it is also the way that I behave as a listener as well - I like it very much, and it brings me into a new, previously unheard musical world.

PS: Given the relative absence of pitch as a basic organizing principal, how do you maintain unity and cohesion in your pieces?

RN: That's a good question for an electroacoustician, because there is no censorship, you can use whatever sound you want, and there isn't a common language, or recipes for how to work.  The acousmatic composer has to deal with the fact that at some point he must establish boundaries, limits on a specific work.  Type of sounds, etc.  In my case I can't start working on a new piece without a title, because the title includes so much information about the basic material.  Then when I'm in my studio working, I can stay close to my goal, and can make new sonic material and musical choices according to the chosen project.

PS: Helmut Lachenmann wrote that when he (infrequently) projects sound through a loudspeaker, it is always symbolic of the death of the sound.  For you it's seems quite the opposite.  How do you project sound and deal with the space of the concert hall?

RN: Over the centuries composers dealt with different aspects of music, form, pitch, etc, and electroacoustic music deals so much with "space".  Acousmatic music is based on the idea that the space is ESSENTIAL to the structure or form - it's neither cosmetic, optional nor superficial, but a basic element.  When I present a piece that has been composed as a multi-channel piece, a stereo version is a reduction, but with the concert version, space is fundamental.  If you go to a cinema and see a film by Fellini, you will have a strong aesthetic experience, but if you watch this film on your television, I'm not quite sure that some basic elements of the Fellini experience won't be compromised. So why go to a concert where there are only speakers?  There is a very fundamental experience, a rich sonic experience - you are surrounded by speakers, and are in the concert space with many different people.

The ritual of being seated with people who share with you the same time, space, and experience is very important. This is possibly the most musical experience you can have, as there is nothing interfering.  The aristocratic ritual of instrumental concert music is based on the star system, to see a soloist, and electroacoustic music experience has none of that.

PS: How did you select the pieces you've chosen for this concert?

RN: I was asked to present my own music (Le renard et la rose (1995), Malina (2000), Erinyes (2001)), and different aspects of acousmatic music showing a broad range from the last 10 years.  I also wanted to include other music from Montréal, so there is music by Francis Dhomont (*Objets retrouvés (1996), Phonurgie (1999)).  For me, he was a real master during my student years, and now he is my close friend.  I also chose Louis Dufort (Decap (2000)).  When he came to the Universit‚ de Montréal, where I teach, we all knew he was at the right place, that he was a composer.  He has done very good work over the years, and his music is quite challenging for us, since we have the feeling that the younger generation continues to produce good music, so we can't stay seated.

 PS: Who comes to your concerts?

RN: Many different people - they're getting younger and younger, and there's more and more brightly coloured hair, etc.  I think this is because of the "techno" scene.  They're listening to music that is more like acousmatic music, though we don't have a beat.  There is a cross between these genres, and I believe that it's because the electroacoustic music scene is closer to the techno scene and the popular scene than to contemporary music.

Presented by: New Music Concerts, The Music Gallery, Rien á voir. Details:  Friday October 26, 2001, 8 p.m. at Robert Gill Theatre (214 College St. (use St. George entrance)).  As well, Robert Normandeau will present a Composition Forum at the Glenn Gould Professional School, The Royal Conservatory of Music (10:00 - 12:00) Room M308, 273 Bloor St. West (at Bedford)