“Restoring Magic to Music”: Jolivet's Cinq Incantations for Solo Flute

• Main Authors: Yi-Chin Lin, 林怡瑾
• Other Authors: Lap-Kwan Kam
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2008
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/45176918429677765297

碩士 === 國立交通大學 === 音樂研究所 === 96 === Jolivet is convinced that art is not to be “understood” but “experienced.” He combines classical techniques with new concepts, and creates the Cinq Incantations pour fl�矌e seule with his personal experience. For him, only early ritual and religious music are significant as music; therefore, he gives each incantation a title to elaborate his prayer. The first incantation deals with duality, and he uses polyphony to illustrate the communication between the negotiators; the final consonant interval of a major third represents the peace wished for in the title. The second incantation has two motives: motive A represents praying, and motive B the early labor in pregnancy; the movement ends on a prolonged forte with the highest B of the flute to depict the pleasure for the newborn child. The music of the third incantation is very repetitive, for it is the farmer’s hardworking plow; the overtone at the end is the prayer for rich harvest to the deity in outer space. The fourth incantation expresses the human inner emotions with the warm timbre of the flute, and the vast universe with its resonant and broad sound. As at the closing of the third incantation, the upward transposition is symbolic of transcendence, here the unification of the individual, nature and the divine. The fifth incantation is a musical summation of all that has come before: the higher register represents the loud crying and screaming while the pivot note G-sharp expands quickly; the lower register sounds like weeping. The music describes the funeral of the chief, but Jolivet also expresses his painful mood at his mother’s death. Yet he means the music to be a lament, but certainly not a dirge, for the final movement is a life-affirming message. Jolivet’s Cinq Incantations not only fulfill the mission of his group “La Jeune France” to create living music, they also earn the compliment of his fellow member Messiaen that Jolivet “restores magic to music.”