Communication

The social value of music in France at the turn of the 20th century: the challenge of a mediating musicology

The presentation will allow to articulate the various musicological initiatives with those purely musical and which contribute, in our opinion, to the appearance of the foundations of a mediation of music as we can think of it today. However, the development of musicology during the 20th century will exclude the discipline from the stakes of mediation until the dawn of the 2000s for disciplinary reasons and the evolution of the structures of the professional musical environment. The historical study of the initiatives of musicologists and musicians in 1900 to disseminate music and the knowledge that accompanies it to the French population, allows us to consider that it was certainly a question of developing a mediating musicology.

Biography

Professor at the Faculty of Music of the University of Montreal since 2002, and director of the Interdisciplinary Observatory of Creation and Research in Music (OICRM) since 2004, Michel Duchesneau is the author and co-editor of numerous works on French music of the first half of the 20th century. Part of Michel Duchesneau’s work concerns the study of musical audiences and the history of musical institutions. In this context, he has developed a particular interest in the conditions of the emergence of musical taste, both from a historical and sociological point of view. He also contributed to the development of the teaching of music mediation at the University of Montreal by creating a specialized diploma (DESS in music mediation). He currently co-directs the Partnership Study on Music Mediation.