Bibliolore

by rilm | July 24, 2025 · 6:00 am

Brian Wilson’s good vibrations

With the passing of Brian Wilson on 11 June 2025–just days before his 83rd birthday–the music world lost one of its most innovative pop composers and producers. As a songwriter, musician, and producer, Wilson co-founded the Beach Boys in 1961 and was the creative force behind the band during its formative years. He wrote, arranged, and produced most of their material during their first five years, crafting a string of 1960s pop classics. The Beach Boys became synonymous with the vibrant themes of Southern California surf culture and youthful fun. With upbeat, danceable hits like Surfin’ U.S.A. (1963), I get around (1964), Fun, fun, fun (1964), California girls (1965), Good vibrations (1966) and many others, they emerged as one of the most successful pop bands of the decade–culminating in a memorable appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1964.

Watch the Beach Boys perform on The Ed Sullivan Show:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QnnFwfewk9c&list=RDQnnFwfewk9c&start_radio=1

The Beach Boys’ carefree, easygoing surf music was characterized by their distinctive vocal harmonies, which quickly became their trademark. Pet sounds–by far the band’s most musically complex and experimental album–was released in 1966 and was deeply inspired by The Beatles’ 1965 album Rubber soul. Widely regarded as one of the most influential records in pop music history, Pet sounds marked a significant artistic leap for the band and for pop as a whole.

Wilson also produced singles for other artists, including The Honeys, a female vocal trio that featured his wife, Marilyn, and Glen Campbell. His production style was heavily influenced by Phil Spector; he frequently worked at Gold Star Studios and employed many of the same session musicians Spector used during the 1960s. Wilson recorded all the backing tracks for the Beach Boys’ hits live, without overdubbing, often adding vocals afterward. Due to deafness in one ear, he worked exclusively in mono.

Wilson in the mid-1970s, performing on piano.

Wilson with a goat on the photoshoot for the *Pet sounds* album cover.

In 1964, Wilson withdrew from live performances to focus on songwriting and studio work. From the late 1960s onward, he also battled depression and substance abuse, eventually stepping away from the music industry entirely for a time. Despite these challenges, he recorded eleven solo albums between 1988 and 2021 and published his autobiography, I am Brian Wilson: A memoir, in 2016. In 2021, Rolling Stone magazine ranked the Beach Boys’ song God only knows at number 11 on its list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.

This according to the entry on Brian Wilson by William Ruhlmann in the Encyclopedia of recorded sound (2005, find it in RILM Music Encyclopedias) and a recently published short obituary in MGG Online.

Bechara El-Khoury, composer and poet

The French Lebanese composer Bechara El-Khoury began his musical training at an early age, studying in Beirut with Agop Arslanian. Celebrated as a child prodigy, he composed around 100 works between 1969–when he was just 12 years old–and 1978. According to El-Khoury, “I began to compose melodies and simple songs when I was around 7 years old. I quickly moved to writing for orchestra, when I was about 12. I composed many pieces when I was young, but my first official work (that appears in my catalogue) was not until 1979, when I arrived in Paris.”

In addition to his musical pursuits, El-Khoury published three collections of poetry between 1971 and 1973, and from 1973 served as capo at the Church of St. Elie in Antelias, near Beirut. In 1979, he moved to Paris, where he refined his skills in composition and orchestration under the guidance of Pierre Petit. He became a French citizen in 1987.

In 1983, the Orchestre Colonne, conducted by Pierre Dervaux, recorded two CDs of Bechara El-Khoury’s music with pianist David Lively. That same year, a televised gala concert featuring El-Khoury’s works—performed with pianist Abdel Rahman El Bacha—was held in celebration of the Khalil Gibran Centenary. In 1985, El-Khoury composed the symphony Les Ruines de Beyrouth, followed in 1996 by a violin sextet commissioned by Shlomo Mintz. He has received numerous honors for his work, including the Prix des Arts et de la Culture from the Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation International (1994), the Prix Rossini from the Académie des Beaux-Arts, Institut de France (2000), and the title of Chevalier of the Ordre National du Cèdre du Liban (2001). In 2003, he was a finalist in the London-based Masterprize composition competition with his orchestral work Les Fleuves engloutis (2001).

Cover art for *Variations orientales* (1975).

Cover art for *Souvenirs d’amour* (1978).

In 2006, El-Khoury’s violin concerto Aux frontières de nulle part (2002) received its premiere in Paris, performed by the Orchestre National de France under the baton of Kurt Masur. That same year, the London Symphony Orchestra recorded two of his major orchestral works: Les Fleuves engloutis and New York, Tears and Hope (2005), the latter composed in memory of the victims of the September 11 attacks in New York.

El-Khoury is also an accomplished poet, and he often speaks about the symbiotic relationship between his poetry and music. In an interview, he explains: “With many of my pieces I write a poem linked to it, either before or after. Sometimes the music creates a poem, and sometimes it is created by a poem . . . My poetic inspiration comes largely from the famous Lebanese poet Khalil Gibran and from Nietzsche.” He adds, “Not necessarily all my music is linked to poetry. And even if a piece has some poetic or programmatic inspiration, it’s still music. You can listen to it without having to know the content.” Nature is another key source of inspiration in El-Khoury’s work. For example, his horn concerto The dark mountain was inspired by childhood memories of the Lebanese mountains.

This according to the entry on Bechara El-Khoury in MGG Online.

Below, El-Khoury’s horn concerto in The dark mountain.

The complexities of underwater acoustics

The ecological importance of natural soundscapes is increasingly recognized, as their degradation may lead to biodiversity loss and disruptions in ecosystem functioning. The disappearance of these soundscapes poses a serious concern, underscoring the need for their preservation. Soundscape studies offer valuable insights into ecological change, enabling researchers to identify affected ecosystems and attribute shifts to factors such as anthropogenic noise. A wide array of methodologies supports this research–from auditory observation and spectrographic visualization to the computation of acoustic indices and sophisticated statistical modeling. Passive acoustic monitoring has emerged as a vital ecological tool, facilitating research, environmental surveillance, and conservation management across both terrestrial and aquatic soundscapes.

A geoacoustic imaging project studying underwater acoustic networks for services in support of the discovery of new underwater cultural heritage (UCH) sites.

In the context of aquatic environments, acoustic recording presents distinct challenges due to the complex nature of sound propagation. Unlike in air, sound does not travel in straight-line paths underwater; instead, it undergoes reflection, refraction, and diffraction. Acoustic energy interacts with uneven surfaces such as the sea surface and seafloor, as well as with suspended objects in bodies of water–including gas bubbles, fish swim bladders, and particulate matter–leading to scattering. Furthermore, some sound waves may penetrate the seafloor and eventually dissipate as heat. Misunderstandings about underwater acoustics are common, including the beliefs that (1) low-frequency sound cannot propagate in shallow water, (2) hard seafloors cause complete reflection with cylindrical spreading, and (3) soft seafloors produce spherical spreading. These oversimplifications overlook the nuanced physics of underwater sound transmission.

Water-column analysis in the Bay of Biscay using broadband acoustic technology.

Understanding sound propagation across diverse environments requires a critical evaluation of commonly used acoustic models and their limitations. Dispelling prevalent misconceptions involves recognizing the nuanced behavior of sound and the assumptions underlying sound propagation equations. To address this, sonar equations have been created for various scenarios, ranging from animal acoustic communication and noise-induced communication masking to the acoustic surveying of marine fauna. Central to these analyses is the “layered ocean” concept, which examines how variations in temperature, salinity, and depth influence sound speed, ultimately affecting propagation pathways and signal fidelity.

This according to “Introduction to sound propagation under water” by Christine Erbe, Alec Duncan, and Kathleen Vigness-Raposa, Exploring animal behavior through sound. I: Methods, ed. by Christine Erbe and Jeanette A. Thomas (Cham: Springer Nature Switzerland, 2022, 185–216; RILM Abstracts of Music Literature, 2022-27424).

July 18 is World Listening Day.

Photo credit for the first image: Douglas Klug.

Black Sabbath and Joy Division channel the sounds of industrialized England

Scholars have long drawn connections between urban life and specific music genres, especially heavy metal. The British bands Black Sabbath and Joy Division serve as compelling case studies, exemplifying how their music emerged as a reflection of the bleak, industrial landscapes of 1960s and 1970s England. Despite belonging to different genres, both bands share a profound commonality: their sound was forged by—and evocative of—the desolation of these environments. This influence is particularly evident through key musical elements, including an unusually bass-heavy sonic palette, repetitive and continuous textures, austere arrangements, rigid song structures, and lyrical themes steeped in urban alienation.

Though separated by roughly a decade, Black Sabbath and Joy Division each aligned loosely with the dominant musical movements of their time. Black Sabbath emerged from the late 1960s blues rock scene, while Joy Division was a product of the post-punk wave of the late 1970s. Despite the differing genres, both bands distinguished themselves through striking originality and enduring influence. Their impact can be traced to two key sources: a strong sense of group synergy and their ability to channel shared urban-industrial experiences into music. In this sense, their music evokes a soundscape of similarly bleak and oppressive environments.

Black Sabbath in 1970. From left to right: Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler, and Bill Ward.

A defining similarity between Black Sabbath and Joy Division lies in the pervasive darkness and heaviness of both their sound and lyrical content. This shared aesthetic reflects a fascination with bleak and nihilistic themes–ranging from personal alienation and psychological turmoil to pressing social concerns such as war and drug addiction, particularly prominent in Black Sabbath’s music. This sonic and thematic weight can be traced directly to the oppressive industrial environments that shaped each band’s identity. Black Sabbath’s members, for instance, were raised in Aston, a war-scarred inner-city district of Birmingham marked by factories, soot-covered terrace houses, smoking chimneys, and remnants of World War II bomb sites. Such surroundings weren’t just the backdrop of their lives; they seeped into the music, transforming lived experience into powerful soundscapes of urban despair.

Joy Division in Manchester, 1979. Photo credit: Kevin Cummins

Joy Division’s origins closely mirrored those of Black Sabbath, shaped by similarly stark surroundings. Bassist Peter Hook and guitarist Bernard Sumner–the band’s central creative forces–grew up in Salford, a working class area near Manchester, during the 1960s and 1970s. Sumner vividly described his neighborhood as “a potted version of the entire, industrialized northwest,” listing iron works, copper works, cloth-finishing factories, paint and chemical plants, cotton mills, sawmills, and brass foundries—all within walking distance of his home. Despite a strong sense of community fostered by tightly packed terraced houses that fronted directly onto the street, the neighborhood was shadowed by frequent violence and a culture that emphasized emotional stoicism and cold, hardened masculinity.

A Manchester cotton mill, early 20th century.

The primal, bass-heavy, riff-driven sound of both Black Sabbath and Joy Division mirrors the industrial landscapes from which they emerged. Factories, conveyor belts, trains, and constant traffic created a dense low-frequency soundscape–a persistent rumble and thunder that saturated the environment. Although high-pitched noises occur in such settings, they are typically brief and peripheral, sharply contrasting with the ever-present bass tones. The absence of natural high-frequency sounds–such as birdsong or rustling leaves–further contributes to the sonic bleakness, depriving the environment of melodic brightness. This acoustic scarcity is echoed in the music: both bands emphasize low-end frequencies and a limited melodic range, effectively channeling the oppressive atmosphere of industrial life and amplifying the emotional starkness at the core of their sound.

This according to “Channelling the darkness: Group flow and environmental expression in the music of Black Sabbath and Joy Division” by Steve M. Taylor (Metal music studies 7/1[2021] 85–102; RILM Abstracts of Music Literature, 2021-4270).

Black Sabbath played their final concert last week on 5 July 2025 at Villa Park in Aston, Birmingham, England. They are widely considered the pioneers of contemporary heavy metal.

Below, Black Sabbath performs Electric funeral on their farewell tour. The next video features Joy Division performing Transmission in September 1979.

Pre-Columbian musical elements in the Veracruz region

The Veracruz region forms part of Mesoamerica—a broad geocultural area in Central America where diverse cultural traits developed and spread beginning around 1500 B.C.E., culminating in the Spanish conquest of the Aztecs in 1521. Many of these cultural characteristics remain evident in the region to this day. Mesoamerica encompasses much of present-day Mexico, along with significant portions of Central America. Over a span of 3,000 years, numerous cultures emerged, flourished, and subsequently declined within this area, exhibiting both distinct differences and a shared set of features now identified as Mesoamerican. Due to this cultural continuity, it is important–especially in the study of specific regions like Veracruz and the Gulf Coast–to differentiate between local traditions and elements common across Mesoamerica. This distinction is particularly relevant when examining musical instruments, as only a limited number of sound-producing objects appear to be unique to specific regions.

No known music from the Veracruz or Gulf Coast region has survived from pre-Columbian times. While the region’s folkloric genres likely retain elements from earlier periods, it is challenging to distinguish these features from those shaped by later cultural influences. Although this is a common feature across Mesoamerica, there are notable exceptions. In Guatemala, for instance, certain bailes (dance performances), such as the Rab’inal Achí and the baile de las canastas, have been shown to preserve rhythmic systems, instrumental roles, intervallic structures, and song forms that are almost certainly of pre-Columbian origin. Such bailes–which may contain traces of ancient musical systems–are not confined to Guatemala but continue to be performed across various regions of Latin America.

A festival featuring Rab’inal Achí in Guatemala.

Ethnomusicological studies to identify surviving pre-Columbian musical elements in the contemporary traditions of the northern Gulf Coast have largely been inconclusive. The only potentially significant example is the ritual dance bisom tiu (the hawk or eagle dance), which continues to be performed at the ancient Huastec site of Tamtoc. However, the accompanying music lacks the non-Western features found in Guatemalan bailes and does not exhibit any unique characteristics that have yet to be documented elsewhere. Nonetheless, certain rhythmic elements appear to retain connections to the pre-Hispanic soundscape of the Veracruz/Gulf Coast region. Excavations in the area have uncovered hundreds, if not thousands, of musical instruments or fragments, many of which were clearly crafted to produce a wide range of timbral variations. The absence of standardized tuning among these instruments suggests that timbre may have been prioritized over pitch, intervals, or melodic structure in the region’s musical practices.

This according to this month’s featured article by Mark Howell on Pre-Columbian music of Veracruz. Find it in DEUMM Online.

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Filed under Central America, Dance, Dramatic arts, Geography, Instruments, World music

Tagged as bailes, Central America, Dance, Gulf Coast, Indigenous Americans, Instruments, Mesoamerica, Mexico, Veracruz

by rilm | July 2, 2025 · 6:00 am

Improvisation schemas and the Turkmen dutar

The Turkmen dutar is a long-necked, two-stringed lute distinguished by its pear-shaped resonating body and thin wooden soundboard. Both the body and soundboard are carved from mulberry wood, while the neck is crafted from the dried trunk of an apricot tree. To construct the instrument, the mulberry wood is carefully rounded, hollowed out, and polished to shape the body. The soundboard wood undergoes a drying process—baked for up to 24 hours to eliminate moisture—before being affixed over the hollowed chamber using traditional bone glue. Traditionally tuned a fourth apart, its two strings serve distinct musical functions: the higher-pitched string carries the primary melody, while the lower-pitched string is often muted by the thumb of the playing hand to produce a shifting parallel melody. Alternatively, the lower string may ring open to function as a drone in certain pieces or passages. Believed to descend from ancient Babylonian and Egyptian lutes, the dutar today is primarily used to accompany Turkmen bards known as bagşy (or bakshy). In the south central Ahal region of Turkmenistan, however, dutar players have cultivated a solo instrumental repertoire. Historically passed down orally, this body of music has, in recent decades, seen partial transcription into a modified form of Western notation for pedagogical purposes. Formally sophisticated and largely through-composed, the repertoire still allows space for variation and interpretive flexibility.

Oghlan Bakhshi (middle), a virtuoso Turkmen dutar player, performs with his group.

In Turkmen music, the term hasap, which literally means account or reckoning, carries a range of other nuanced meanings. In everyday use, one might request a hasap when settling a bill at a restaurant or inquiring about the score of a game. Within musical contexts, hasap denotes various interpretive and structural concepts. Musicians may refer to a particular master’s hasap for a given piece, or more generally to the shared hasap of a composition. Along with related terms such as nusga, forma, and skema, hasap can indicate a skeletal melodic framework that individual performers elaborate through ornamentation and stylistic variation. Comparative transcriptions of extended passages–whether interpreted by multiple dutar players or revisited by the same performer–often reveal consistency in underlying structure, with variation appearing primarily in melodic embellishment, rhythmic phrasing, and the treatment of the lower string.

Excerpt from the song *Balsaýat*, transcribed by Ýazmyrat Rejepow.

Turkmen dutar players navigate the dual imperative to both preserve and creatively reinterpret traditional repertoire. To do so, they draw on a repertoire of internalized formulas, compositional schemas, and aesthetic principles to generate new musical material–whether in improvisation or composition. These strategies parallel those found in other music traditions, such as Hindustani music, Persian classical music, and jazz, where deep immersion in a musical system enables spontaneous creativity within established boundaries. Like Persian musicians who internalize the radif through prolonged apprenticeship, Turkmen performers absorb such frameworks, often without formal codification. Turkmen dutar players, however, tend to reapply these principles not just in improvisatory spaces, but within the reinterpretation of the inherited compositions themselves.

This according to “Principles of transmission and collective composition in Turkmen dutar performance” by David Fossum (Analytical approaches to world musics 5/2 [2017] 37 p.; RILM Abstracts with Full Text, 2017-43691) and the entry on the dutar in Musical instruments: A comprehensive dictionary (1964); find it in RILM Music Encyclopedias.

The Turkmen dutar is on UNESCO’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

Below, Oghlan Bakhshi performs the traditional Turkmen song Boy bibi. The video after it, created by UNESCO, is on dutar making and performance.

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Filed under Asia, Ethnomusicology, Instruments, Nature, World music

Tagged as Central Asia, dutar, hasap, Improvisation, Instruments, Lute, repertoire, transmission, Turkmenistan, UNESCO

by rilm | June 28, 2025 · 6:00 am

The Orpheus theme in opera

The Orpheus saga marked the birth of a new operatic genre and became a model for significant compositional reform. Raniero de Calzabigi, librettist for Christoph Willibald Gluck, stripped the myth to its essential narrative, discarding subplots and intrigues. This shift redirected opera from opera seria toward azione teatrale, emphasizing theatrical action and emotional immediacy. Gluck reflected this evolution by largely abandoning the elaborate arias and coloratura typical of opera seria, favoring instead simple melodies, choral passages, and accompanied recitatives. In 1774, Gluck substantially revised the work for its Paris debut–particularly the recitatives–infusing it with heightened drama and aligning it more closely with the tragédie lyrique tradition of French opera. Later, in 1791, Joseph Haydn’s final opera, L’anima del filosofo ossia Orfeo ed Euridice, offered a humanist interpretation of the myth. Here, Orpheus emerged as a philosophical figure, resonating with Enlightenment ideals.

Poster promoting Jacques Offenbach’s *Orphée aux enfers*.

By the 19th century, interest in Orpheus-themed operas had waned, giving way to a broader exploration of the myth across other musical forms such as symphonies, cantatas, and operettas. As early as 1689, an Orpheus parody appeared, and by the late 18th and 19th centuries, additional satirical operettas followed. The most renowned of these is Jacques Offenbach’s Orphée aux enfers (1858), which helped inaugurate the French operetta tradition. In the 20th century, opera composers rediscovered the Orpheus myth with renewed interest. Darius Milhaud’s Les Malheurs d’Orphée (1926), a deliberate break from grand Romantic opera, sets the myth in a pastoral landscape, portraying Orpheus as a humble farmer and miraculous healer who is tragically powerless to save his wife Eurydice from a mysterious illness. This evolving view of Orpheus–as an allegory for the artist–had gained prominence since the late 19th century and is echoed in Oskar Kokoschka and Ernst Křenek’s 1926 play Orpheus and Eurydice. Here, the myth becomes a metaphor not only for the struggle between the sexes–Eurydice, now allied with Hades, refuses to return to Orpheus and ultimately kills him to reclaim her autonomy–but also for the artist’s torment in striving to hold on to their creative muse.

This according to the entry on Orpheus by Britta Schilling-Wang in MGG Online.

A scene from *Orpheus in der Unterwelt* (based on the operetta by Jacques Offenbach) directed by Spymonkey, the U.K.’s leading company for physical comedy. In this version, Orpheus is a bored music teacher and his wife Eurydice is constantly annoyed by him.

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Filed under Dramatic arts, Literature, Opera, Reception

Tagged as Christoph Willibald Gluck, Enlightenment, Mythology, Opera, Orpheus, parody, Philosophy, satire, theater

by rilm | June 25, 2025 · 6:00 am

Extra Fancy’s visceral queercore as discursive space

In 1996, Atlantic Records released—and almost immediately abandoned—a queercore album that boldly asserted a fiercely aggressive, macho gay male identity. Extra Fancy’s Sinnerman tackled themes such as sadomasochism, violent retaliation against gay-bashing, and life with HIV, all filtered through a punk-driven sonic intensity that matched the raw aggression of its lyrics. Although the band’s work was overtly queer in content, only lead singer Brian Grillo was openly gay. Grillo’s commanding physicality, including his muscular frame, butch attire, shaved head, and confrontational stage presence, projected a radical gay male persona steeped in anger and defiance. His gravelly vocal delivery evoked the hardcore and alternative masculinity of Henry Rollins, Kurt Cobain, and Eddie Vedder–as he performed shirtless, pounding a fifty-gallon oil drum, owning the stage with visceral bravado. Nearly a decade later, Extra Fancy received near-iconic status in David Ciminelli and Ken Knox’s book Homocore: The loud and raucous rise of queer rock, even as the authors noted that Grillo “never had a desire to be anything other than a performer who rocked—regardless of his sexual orientation”.

Extra Fancy poses with fans. Photo: Extra Fancy Facebook page.

The surge of gay and lesbian visibility in 1990s popular culture revealed the limited discursive space within which queer identity was permitted to exist in mainstream U.S. society–a homonormative framework that Extra Fancy vehemently resisted. Brian Grillo’s representation of gay male identity served as a radical rejection of this structure. The band’s title track, Sinnerman, is a reinterpretation of the traditional gospel song Sinner man, originally recorded by The Weavers in the late 1950s and later popularized by Nina Simone’s iconic 1960s rendition. Once emblematic of the liberationist Christian ethos that fueled the civil rights movement, the song was repurposed by Extra Fancy to subvert more dogmatic religious narratives and to spotlight systemic inequality through a distinctly queer lens.

The “queer” in queercore signals identities that exist outside rigid heteronormative constructs, yet it does not imply a unified or cohesive community. As Jack Halberstam notes, “In mainstream gay, lesbian, and trans communities in the United States, battles rage about what group occupies the more transgressive or aggrieved position.” Queercore music often seeks to challenge binary understandings of gender and sexuality; however, the multiplicity of identities encompassed by the term makes it difficult–if not impossible–for any band or collective to serve as a definitive representative. This complexity is reflected in the musical output of the most celebrated queercore acts, whose styles are as varied as the identities they seek to express.

This according to “The erotics of an oil drum: Queercore, gay macho, and the defiant sexuality of Extra Fancy’s Sinnerman” by Kevin Schwandt (Women & music: A journal of gender and culture 13 [2009] 76–87; RILM Abstracts of Music Literature, 2009-13027).

Francis Bebey globalizes African music

The Cameroonian composer, writer, sculptor, and musicologist Francis Bebey was widely recognized as one of Africa’s foremost songwriters. His talent, however, reached far beyond music. Bebey earned a B.S. in mathematics from a college in Douala and later pursued further education at the Sorbonne in Paris, where he was deeply influenced by classical guitarist Andrés Segovia. He studied broadcasting at the Studio-école de la Radiodiffusion Outre-Mer in Paris and at New York University. Although known mostly for his literary work, Bebey was also an accomplished classical guitarist and composer. His musical journey began in his youth with a band in Cameroon, where he composed original music noted for its poetic lyrics and emotive vocal delivery. By 1967, he had recorded several pieces and performed in major cultural hubs, including New York City, Paris, and across Africa. His style was notably experimental, blending elements of Latin American, Western, and African musical traditions with rolling synthesizer patterns looped over drum machines. Among his most acclaimed recordings are Akwaaba (1985), Amaya (1987), and Dibiye (1998).

Francis Bebey toured extensively across the United States, Canada, Europe, and Africa, offering solo recitals and lecture concerts. His repertoire was a blend of African folk songs and original compositions, often rooted in traditional African musical elements. Among his most acclaimed works are The Ashanti doll is sleeping (1967), Black tears (1963)–a wordless poem dedicated to the participants of the March on Washington, D.C.–The Poet’s virile prayer (1973), which features text by Aimé Césaire, and Concert for an old mask (1965).

La Condition Masculine

Bebey and his son, Patrick, perform Esok am and Mon secret.

Bebey was also a distinguished literary figure, leaving behind a diverse body of work that includes poetry, short stories, novels, and essays. His first novel, Le fils d’Agatha Moudio (Agatha Moudio’s son, 1971), published in 1967, was widely acclaimed as a masterful work of burlesque and was awarded the Grand Prix Littéraire de l’Afrique Noire. In 1968, he released Embarras et cie: Nouvelles et poèmes, a collection of nine short stories, each paired with a poem. Bebey noted that his extensive experience as a radio broadcaster significantly shaped his storytelling style, which he wrote with listeners, rather than readers, in mind. His later literary works include La poupée Ashanti (1973, The Ashanti doll) and Le roi Albert d’Effidi (1973). Bebey also contributed a book on broadcasting in Africa and two important texts on African music, most notably Musique de l’Afrique (1969). By 1972, he had joined UNESCO in Paris as the head of the music department, where he continued to champion African music traditions–traveling extensively, primarily in Africa, studying, recording, and filming musicians across the continent. In a 1982 interview, Bebey explained, “What I’m aiming to do is to use Western technology to invigorate African music and spread its message internationally.”

This according to the entry on Francis Bebey by Eileen Southern in the Biographical dictionary of Afro-American and African musicians (1982). Find it in RILM Music Encyclopedias.

Bebey’s book *Musique de l’Afrique* was published in 1969.

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Filed under Africa, Ethnomusicology, Europe, Musicologists, Performers, Popular music, World music

Tagged as Africa, Black composers, Cameroon, Composers, drum machines, Experimental music, Francis Bebey, Musicologists, Paris, sculptor, storytelling, Synthesizers, UNESCO

by rilm | June 13, 2025 · 6:00 am

Montréal’s rich musical and intellectual life

As the capital of Québec, Montréal is home to around 40% of the province’s population—approximately 2 million people, as of 2021. The city was originally settled by the Iroquois along the Saint Lawrence River before being established as Ville-Marie in 1642 by Catholic missionaries. Nearly a century earlier, in 1535, Jacques Cartier documented his visit to the Indigenous village of Hochelaga, a thriving community of around 1,500 inhabitants at the foot of Mount Royal. However, by the time the missionaries arrived, no trace of Hochelaga remained. Montréal’s location, at the confluence of the Saint Lawrence and Outaouais Rivers in southwestern Québec, was ideal for settlement due to its access to natural resources.

Aerial view of Montréal in 1930. Photo courtesy of Archives de la Ville de Montréal.

Montréal’s Jacques Cartier Square, circa 1900. Photo courtesy of the Library of Congress.

Cartier Square today. Photo credit: Taylor McIntyre

By the late 18th century, Montréal’s cultural landscape had begun to flourish with the construction of theaters, organized tours, and a growing concert-going audience. In 1789, composer and poet Joseph Quesnel, along with painter Louis Dulongpré, established the Théâtre de Société, where Quesnel premiered Colas et Colinette, recognized as the first Canadian opera, in 1790. The city’s theatrical development continued in 1825 with the opening of the Théâtre Royal, located on the site of today’s Marché Bonsecours, which attracted talented singers from Europe and the United States.

Since the 19th century, Montréal’s vibrant musical scene has thrived through clubs and organizations dedicated to enriching public performances. The Ladies’ Morning Musical Club, established in 1892, welcomed legendary performers such as Vladimir Horowitz, Arthur Rubinstein, Glenn Gould, Isaac Stern, Jean-Pierre Rampal, and Pierrette Alarie. In 1919, Elizabeth Griswold Waycott founded the Delphic Study Club, which hosted an annual music week from 1923 to 1937, featuring free concerts in theaters, shops, schools, churches, and other public spaces. Another significant contribution came in 1948 with the founding of Société Pro Musica by Gertrude Constant Gendreau, known for its diverse programming of local and international musicians.

Ernest Lavigne and his Orchestra, Sohmer Park, Montreal.

Beginning in 1979, the Prix Gertrude Gendreau has recognized outstanding Montréal students, while several major music institutions have made the city their home–including Youth and Music Canada (since 1949), the Canadian Music Center’s Quebec branch (since 1973), the Quebec Music Council (since 1987), and the World Musicians’ Centre (since 2017). From 1965 to 1980, the Montréal International Music Competition awarded a special prize for the best interpretation of a compulsory piece composed by a Canadian artist.

The Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec (Quebec National Library and Archives) in Montréal.

Montréal has hosted major international events, including the 1967 World’s Fair (Expo 67) and the 1976 Summer Olympics, further cementing its reputation as a global cultural hub. Today, the city is home to four universities and numerous research centers, as well as key institutions like the Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec (Quebec National Library and Archives) and the Radio-Canada Museum. Montreal’s rich arts scene includes a network of cultural centers, theaters, event spaces, and museums. The city also boasts two symphony orchestras and a prestigious opera house, reinforcing its status as a thriving center for artistic and intellectual life.

This according to MGG Online’s featured article of the month by Ariane Couture, entitled Montréal.

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Filed under Geography, Musicology, North America, Opera, Performers

Tagged as Canada, cities, intellectual life, Montréal, musical life, North America, Opera, Québec, theater, urban geography