Taking the pretext of new appointments to the Order of Arts and Letters of Quebec, The duty invites you into the imagination of artists whose exemplary work promotes culture.
“I never realized I wanted to become a musician. I was. It was intrinsically part of me. I can’t remember a time when I wanted to be. »
As a child, he was interested in chemistry, like many boys his age. “I remember I was making rockets that we launched into the sky. But his heaven, the only one, remains the music.
“It’s all about music. The world is an undulation, in its deep nature. There are macro-waves like microwaves. » And Walter Boudreau to launch a rhythm on the table which separates us. “If I accelerate to the rate of 440 beats per second, I get the vibration of the note the. And if he could produce a million billion vibrations per second, he explains, we would be in the presence of light. “It’s all about vibration… Music thrives on mathematical hurdles and, at the same time, it’s a deeply sensual affair. It’s extraordinary ! »
Is it still childhood that continues to vibrate in him? “My mother was a respectable pianist. She had studied at Villa Maria college. She played me Bach on the piano. She also plays the organ in church, where little Walter can sing. “I trained my ears very early on to great music, but not necessarily to great musicians! »
No nostalgia for the time of the priests wishes to specify Walter Boudreau. “I’m not the type nostalgic for a supposed ‘good old days’. I am quite capable of identifying shortcomings in what was being done then. Still, he observes, something has been lost along the way. “There was a presence of music in society which was valued. We taught music. Why doesn’t the state now take care of the arts? It is on him that we should count. The criteria that are now put forward make no sense. If excellence is no longer a target, what are we aiming for? Each generation goes through its ordeal, you have to believe…”
In Sorel, where he finds himself raised by his grandmother, Walter Boudreau sees from his room, across the street, the studio where he learns music. Impossible not to think about it. The saxophone will soon be the reference instrument for Walter Boudreau. “My grandfather was an agnostic. At home, they read to me, in English, theHistory of the decline and fall of the Roman Empire by Gibbons. In this family, they quickly refused the control of the Church.
“There was no internet. Not everyone had a phone. Music was everywhere. A very large number of families had a piano. The context favored the music. We got together a lot. People weren’t locked in with their cell phones. »
At 14, this future pope of contemporary music in Quebec belongs to a rock group, the Majestics. “Bruce, our singer, is going to make himself known with the Sultans! I discovered that popular music gave me a special status. I was popular! And at the same time I could also listen to Bach’s fugues every evening. »
He is also very passionate about jazz. “I was open to anything. It takes all kinds of different things. The poet Gaston Miron used to say that beautiful flowers, in literature, grow in manure. In other words, it takes a rich and varied environment for something remarkable to spring up. Walter Boudreau does not say anything else when speaking of music: “I want to say that life comes out of shit! »
It was thanks to public radio that he discovered contemporary music. Walter Boudreau never ceases to praise this school that radio can constitute. “I discovered contemporary music with Serge Garant on the radio. We no longer have such a program on the radio. Boudreau is a loyal listener to the show Music from our century animated by this composer, pianist and conductor. In 1967, Serge Garant took over the management of the Société de musique contemporaine du Québec (SMCQ), founded by Jean Papineau-Couture, Maryvonne Kendergi, Wilfrid Pelletier and Hugh Davidson. This institution of contemporary music, Walter Boudreau will in turn lead it for thirty-three seasons. He is bowing out this year. “But I have already prepared the whole of the next SMCQ season, the 34e. »
What happened to the cultural mission of public radio? “It’s a total right turn that we have witnessed. There has been an ignominious resignation of our leaders in the face of culture. The major public radio stations normally maintain orchestras. At the very least, they commission pieces from composers. They organize musical competitions for performers. All that took the edge or almost. Here, in fact, there is nothing. There is only one objective left: to make money, to attract as many people as possible, which is the same thing. Education has taken the edge. »
Walter Boudreau evokes the examples of the Philharmonic Orchestra of Radio France or that of the BBC in England. “Here, what do we have? Nothing. »
What is happening on public radio with regard to culture is an open window on a collective resignation that he castigates. “What we are aiming for is an abominable setback. They lie to us about artists, letting us believe that all sorts of phony criteria must take the place of quality, of excellence. Take what is happening at the Canada Council for the Arts. Excellence is no longer a criterion! It’s scandalous. We have abandoned the spirit of research, in my opinion. The pendulum has passed to the other side. For him, the time is urgent. In the urgency of music.