Figurative

What Dominique Pagani says

Dominique Pagani approaches the figurative mainly through music, first setting it against pure music. For him, pure music is an art of time without figuration. Yet it tells a precise story, even though no words can be put to it1. From this standpoint, any figuration would be a disfiguration of pure music2. Later in the same session, he qualifies this opposition: pure music always has a figurative side, and figurative, or programme, music must also stand as pure music3. He extends the question to painting. Modern art and Impressionism blur outlines and make the setting musical4. He reads Baudelaire's letter to Wagner in this light: it describes nothing figurative and evokes a painting that tends toward music5. The figurative thus serves to think about the passage between the arts, and in particular about how painting draws closer to music.

1. 1La Musique de l'Histoire26 Apr 2015 · 27:08
2. 2Musicosophie 16. Musique à programme / Musique pure10 Mar 2021 · 6:49
3. 3Musicosophie 16. Musique à programme / Musique pure10 Mar 2021 · 49:16
4. 4#1 Mignon ou le chant du silence7 Apr 2021 · 48:00
5. 5#1 Mignon ou le chant du silence7 Apr 2021 · 53:07

Summary produced automatically from 5 of the passages below, to be reviewed; the numbers link to the moment in the session.