Nabokov, Nicolas [Nikolay]

Nattiez, Jean-Jacques

(b Amiens, 30 Dec 1945). French musicologist and ethnomusicologist, active in Canada. He studied semiology with Georges Mounin and Jean Molino in Aix-en-Provence (1968–70), and took the doctorate in musical semiology under Nicolas Ruwet at the Sorbonne in 1973. He was appointed professor of musicology in 1972 at the University of Montreal, where he served as director of the Groupe de Recherches en Sémiologie Musicale, 1974–80. An internationally celebrated scholar, he was elected a Member of the Royal Society of Canada in 1988, awarded the Dent Medal of the Royal Musical Association in 1989 and appointed Member of the Order of Canada in 1990.

Nattiez's earliest book on the foundations of musical semiology (1975), which has never been translated, initiated a career during which he has written prolifically as a music theorist and historian. In addition to authoring studies of Wagner (1983, 1993), Nattiez has worked closely with Boulez, with whom he co-edited the series Musique/Passé/Présent and whose collected writings and letters (written to John Cage) he edited (1986, 1991). His Musicologie générale et sémiologie (1991), an outstanding exposition of post-structuralist musicological methodology, runs counter to most of the trends of the ‘New Musicology’ of the 1980s (a term which, according to Derrick Puffett, Nattiez was the first to use; see Puffet, 1994). Nattiez has also had a parallel career as an ethnomusicologist, conducting fieldwork in Uganda, and in the Arctic regions of Canada, northern Japan and Siberia with the Inuit, Ainu and Chukchi. He has won international recognition through his recordings (Inuit Iglulik Canada, 1993; An Anthology of Music from Uganda, 1996) and research in these areas. One of the first scholars to introduce semiotics into musical analysis, his scholarship is characterized by his diversity of interests, range of methodologies, and expertise in linguistics and music. His consistent focus on epistemological issues links him to the tradition of 18th-century French Encyclopedists, and his lifelong interest in music and literature is reflected in his book Proust musicien (1984) and his novel Opéra (Paris, 1997). His scholarly articles have been published in three collections (1988, 1993, 1999).

WRITINGS

‘Situation de la sémiologie musicale’, Musique en Jeu, no.5 (1971), 3–17; Eng. trans. as ‘Musicology and Linguistics: the First Stage of Musical Semiotics’, Journal canadien de recherches sémiotiques, iii/1 (1975), 51–71

‘Is a Descriptive Semiotics of Music Possible?’, Language Sciences, no.23 (1972), 1–17

‘La linguistique: voie nouvelle pour l'analyse musicale?’, Cahiers canadiens de musique, no.4 (1972), 101–15; Eng. trans. in IRASM, iv (1973), 56–67

with L. Hirbour-Paquette: ‘Analyse musicale et sémiologie: à propos du Prélude de Pelléas’, Musique en Jeu, no.10, (1973) 42–69

‘Analyse musicale et sémiologie: le structuralisme de Lévi-Strauss’, Musique en Jeu, no.12 (1973), 59–79

‘What Can Structuralism Do for Musicology?’, Journal of Symbolic Anthropology, no.1 (1973), 59–74

‘Y a-t-il une diégèse musicale?’, Musik und Verstehen: Aufsätze zur semiotischen Theorie, Aesthetik und Soziologie der musikalischen Rezeption, ed. P. Faltin and H.P. Reinecke (Cologne, 1973), 247–57

‘Sémiologie musicale: l'état de la question’, AcM, xlvi (1974), 153–71.

‘Sur les relations entre sociologie et sémiologie musicales’, IRASM, v (1974), 61–75

‘Densité 21.5’ de Varèse : essai d'analyse sémiologique (Montreal, 1975); Eng. trans., rev. in MAn, i (1982), 243–340

Fondements d'une sémiologie de la musique (Paris, 1975)

‘The Contribution of Musical Semiotics to the Semiotic Discussion in General’, A Perfusion of Signs, ed. T.A. Sebeok (Bloomington, IN, 1977), 121–42

with C.L. Boilès: ‘Petite histoire critique de l'ethnomusicologie’, Musique en Jeu, no.28, (1977), 26–53

‘Under What Conditions can one Speak of the Universals of Music?’, World of music, xix, 1–2 (1977), 92–105, 106–16

‘Récit musical et récit littéraire’, Études françaises, xiv/1–2, (1978), 93–121

‘La trahison de Chéreau’, Musique en jeu, no.31 (1978), 85–110; Eng. trans. in October, no.14 (1980), 71–100

‘Le solo de cor anglais de Tristan: une analyse et quelques problèmes’, Degrès, no.18 (1979), 1–24

‘Le thème de la Symphonie en sol mineur, K.550, de Mozart: la comparaison des analyses du point de vue sémiologique’, Music and Sciences, ed. G.F. Arlandi (Bochum, 1997), 7–62; Eng. trans. in CMR, xvii (1998), 567–96

‘Paroles d'informateurs et propos de musiciens: quelques remarques sur la place du discours dans la connaissance de la musique’, YTM, xiii (1981), 48–59

‘Comparisons within a Culture : the Example of the katajjaq of the Inuit’, Cross-cultural Perspectives on Music, ed. R. Falck and T. Rice (Toronto, 1982), 134–40

ed., with M. Guertin and M. Desroches: Three Musical Analyses (Toronto, 1982) [incl. ‘An Analysis of Debussy's Syrinx’, 1–35]

‘The Rekkukara of the Ainu (Japan) and the Katajjaq of the Inuit (Canada): a Comparison’, World of Music, xxv/2 (1983), 33–44

‘Some Aspects of the Study of Inuit Vocal Games’, EthM, xxvii (1983), 457–75

Tétralogies ‘Wagner, Boulez, Chéreau’: essai sur l'infidélité (Paris, 1983)

Proust musicien (Paris, 1984; Eng. trans., 1989)

‘Les concepts de mise en série et d'intrigue dans l'analyse musicale’, Analytica: Studies in the Description and Analysis of Music in Honour of Ingmar Bengtsson, ed. A. Lönn and E. Kjellberg (Stockholm, 1985), 35–46; Eng. trans. as ‘The Concepts of Plot and Seriation Process in Music Analysis’, MAn, iv (1985), 107–18

‘La relation oblique entre le musicologue et le compositeur’, Quoi? quand? comment? La recherche musicale, ed. T. Machover (Paris, 1985), 121–34

Introduction to E. Hanslick: Du beau dans la musique (Paris, 1986), 11–51; rev. version in Le combat de Chronos et d'Orphée (Paris, 1993) [chap.3]

ed.: P. Boulez: Orientations: Collected Writings (London, 1986) [incl. ‘On Reading Boulez’, 11–28]

Il discorso musicale: per una semiologia della musica (Turin, 1987)

Musicologie générale et sémiologie (Paris, 1987; Eng. trans., 1990, as Music and Discourse)

De la sémiologie à la musique (Montreal, 1988) [reprs. of essays, 1972–88]

‘Glenn Gould singulier: structure et atemporalité dans la pensée gouldienne’, Glenn Gould pluriel, ed. G. Guertin (Montreal, 1988), 57–82; rev. version in Le combat de Chronos et d'Orphée (Paris, 1993) [chap.2]

‘La mémoire et l'oubli (Wagner/Proust/Boulez): notes pour un livre imaginaire’, InHarmoniques, no.4 (1988), 62–71; rev. version in Le combat de Chronos et d'Orphée (Paris, 1993) [chap.5]

‘Le paradoxe du sociologue (esthétique et perception dans les travaux de P.M. Menger)’, Contrechamps, no.10 (1989), 140–67 rev. version in Le combat de Chronos et d'Orphée (Paris, 1993) [chap.8]

‘Reflections on the Development of Semiology in Music’, MAn, viii (1989), 21–75

‘Can Someone Speak of Narrativity in Music?’, JRMA, xv/2 (1990), 240–57

ed.: P. Boulez and J. Cage: Correspondance et documents (Winterthur, 1990; Eng. trans., 1993, as The Boulez Cage Correspondence)

‘Herméneutique, sémiologie, analyse musicales’, Tendenze e metodi nella ricerca musicologica (Latina, 1990), 43–62

Wagner androgyne (Paris, 1990; Eng. trans., 1993)

‘Arom, ou le sémiologue sans le savoir’, Analyse musicale, no.23 (1991), 77–82; Eng. trans., as ‘Simha Arom and the Return of Analysis to Ethnomusicology’, MAn, xii (1993), 241–65

‘Existe-t-il des relations entre les diverses méthodes d'analyse?’, Analisi musicale: Trent: 1991, 537–65

‘Musica e semiologia del giudizio critico’, Identita della Critica, ed. L. Nanni (Bologna, 1991), 11–31

‘Über die Verhältnisse zwischen historischer Musikwissenschaft und Ethnomusikologie bei der musikalischen Analyse’, Ethnomusikologie und historische Musikwissenschaft: Mainz 1991, 90–97

‘Fidelity to Wagner’, Wagner in Performance, ed. B. Millington and S. Spencer, (New Haven, CT, 1992), 75–98

Le combat de Chronos et d'Orphée (Paris, 1993; Eng. trans., forthcoming) [essays]

‘Les trois Nornes et la petite madeleine: les esquisses de Richard Wagner pour Siegfrieds Tod (1850)’, Le combat de Chronos et d'Orphée (Paris, 1993); enlarged version in RdM, lxxxi (1995), 191–213; lxxxiii (1996), 39–122 [separate pubn forthcoming]

‘Analyse d'“un”chant inuit (paradigmes et mises-en-série)’, Dehoux V. et al. (éds.), Ndroje balendro: Musiques, terrains et disciplines: Textes offerts à Simha Arom, ed. V. Dehoux and others (Paris, 1995), 305–21

‘Musique, structures, cultures’, EM: annuario degli archivi di etnomusicologia dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, iii (1995), 37–54

‘Inuit Throat-Games and Siberian Throat Singing: a Comparative, Historical, and Semiological Approach’, Ethm, xliii (1999), 399–418

La musique, la recherche et la vie: un dialogue et quelques dérives (Montreal, 1999)

Les esquisses de Richard Wagner pour Siegfried's Tod (1850) (forthcoming)

La musique et ses doubles (Montreal, forthcoming) [collected articles]

BIBLIOGRAPHY

P. Turnstall: ‘Structuralism and Musicology: an Overview’, CMc, no.27 (1979), 51–64

J. Dunsby: ‘Music and Semiotics: the Nattiez Phase’, MQ, xix (1983), 27–43

J. Bernard: ‘On Density 21.5: a Response to Nattiez’, MAn, v (1986), 207–31

C. Mersey: ‘Qu'est-ce que le postmodernisme musical?’, Circuit: revue nord-américaine de musique du xxe siècle, i/1 (1990), 9–25 [interview]

J. Jaránek: ‘Ein Beitrag zu Nattiez: Analyse zur Musikanalysen’, Analisi musicale II: Trent 1991, 577–84; see also A. Whittall, ibid., 585–92; J. Dunsby, ibid., 573–7; M. Bristiger, ibid., 567–72 [responses to Nattiez]

D. Puffett: Introduction to MAn, xiii (1994), 3 only

A. Remme: ‘Jean-Jacques Nattiez’ muusikasemiootikast’, Akadeemia, no.11 (1994), 2382–401 [in Eng. and Estonian]

A. Orcalli: ‘La ricerca timbrica nella semiologia della musica di Jean-Jacques Nattiez’, Il saggiatore musicale, ii (1995) 349–56

J. Buhler: Informal Music Analysis: a Critique of Formalism, Semiology and Narratology as Discourses on Music (diss., U. of Pennsylvania, 1996)

A. Pryer: ‘Nattiez's Music and Discourse: Situating the Philosophy’, MAn, xv (1996), 101–16

JONATHAN DUNSBY