To launch the third season of Sonorités, an episode recorded before a live audience at the Faculty of Music of the University of Montreal brings together six specialists to reflect on the sometimes very blurred line between musical diplomacy and musical propaganda. Through examples ranging from Baroque opera to the great humanitarian songs of the 1980s, by way of the Second World War and today's international conflicts, we discover how music can be used to convince, rally, resist… or shape the image of a state.

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Sound recording and post-production: Olivier Gagnon

“Usually, everyone can sing a song,” but what about when you want to transcribe classical music? Is it really that easy?

In this first episode, conductor Jean-François Rivest and flautist Ariane Brisson explain the purpose of transcriptions and how to do them. We will explore the topic of transcribing traditional music primarily through Ariane Brisson’s experience.

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This second exchange on the theme of classical transcription takes place between lecturer Jean-François Guay and Jérémy David, a doctoral student in performance. This time, the saxophone is in the spotlight through the work and practice of Jérémy David.

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Instrument making is constantly being reinvented! In this episode, you’ll plunge into the world of invented digital instruments with Nicolas Bernier, professor of composition and sound creation at the Faculty of Music; Ana Dall’Ara-Majek, guest professor; and Jean-François Laporte, a Faculty graduate and founder and artistic director of Productions Totem Contemporain.

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When singing means resisting! This episode is a hymn to women arrested by the Nazi authorities during the Second World War. Punctuated by “live” performances, it has us witness a body of songs composed by French women resistance workers in Nazi prisons. Marie-Hélène Benoit Otis, professor of musicology at Université de Montréal and holder of the Canada Research Chair in Music and Politics, and researchers Cécile Quesney and Catherine Harrison-Boisvert explore some of these fighting songs written to existing melodies.

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At the museum, at the movies or during live installation and performances, you’ve possibly already been in contact with electroacoustic music without realizing it!

By way of his history as part of the Faculty of Music and personal anecdotes, Jonathan Goldman, professor of musicology at the UdeM, along with Robert Normandeau, who has enjoyed a 40-year career as a composer and professor of digital music and sound creation, present a journey through time. In the first part, our professors focus on the contributions of Marcelle Deschênes and Nicolas Bernier.

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In the second part, video music lies at the heart of the discussion between Jonathan Goldman, professor at the Faculty of Music, and Robert Normandeau, composer and professor of digital music and sound creation, who address the worlds of Jean Piché and Francis Dhomont.

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Have you always dreamed of enjoying an opera experience in the comfort of your own home? A multidisciplinary team at UdeM explores this idea through the “OpéRA de poche” project: Zoey Cochran, Ana Sokolović, Olivier Asselin and Marie-Josèphe Vallée introduce you to this one-of-a-kind project!

In this first episode, those involved reveal the genesis of the project, and how this responds to the objective of democratizing opera and making it accessible in a domestic setting.

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This second episode will introduce you to the second phase of the OpéRA de poche project. This professionalizing stage saw the creation of a fifth opera scenario with a brand-new team composed of Indigenous artists, and turned up quite a few challenges during the creation of prototypes

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Artificial intelligence is being applied in many fields, and its use is often questioned. But how do things stand with regard to musical creation?

In this episode, Dominic Thibault, professor of composition and sound creation, interviews Myriam Bleau and Gabriel Lavoie-Viau on the place of artificial intelligence in their respective work and its impact.

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