Post from Catherine Perrin | The future, 55 years later

Do you remember this object that seemed to come out of a kitchen, often given as a gift about fifteen years ago: a sort of metal spider, intended to stroke your head by slipping between your hair? Some hated the feeling; I liked it. Certain pieces of music by Pierre Boulez have a little the same effect on me: they precipitate my neurons in all directions, like the ax of a billiard ball.

Catherine Perrin
Special collaboration

If you are distraught by the aridity of this music, imagine it played on December 15, 1966. It then opened the inaugural concert of the Société de musique contemporaine du Québec (SMCQ), of which the composer Serge Garant was the first artistic director. .

At the end of the concert that evening, Garant was also conducting the interpretation of one of his own works, Anerca : abstract music, inspired by the Automatist movement.

The SMCQ had the daring idea of ​​recreating, piece for piece and day for day, this first program: entitled Yesterday and today, the concert will be presented on December 15 at Salle Pierre-Mercure. In addition to Boulez and Garant, we will hear works by R. Murray Schafer, who recently died, and Bruce Mather.

I ask Walter Boudreau, artistic director of the SMCQ since 1988, if he believes that these works still hold water, 55 years later.

“It’s both a test and a message: it reminds us of the dream of the modernists, the total reinvention of language. ”

In the middle of our telephone conversation, he stretches his arm to improvise on the piano, with one hand, on a burst and dissonant chord by Anton Webern, one of the fathers of this modernist revolution of the mid-twentieth century.^e century.

Walter is aware that this total break with the melody explains why this revolutionary repertoire is not often repeated.

“Boulez, it was Moses coming down with his tables: a blow of force… but which did not lay down the law! Do not forget the story of Moses: the 12 tribes separated, part of the troops founded Islam. The works that we are going to take back are like the temples of an ancient faith: if we still admire the old pyramids or the cathedrals, we must give this music a chance. Walter emphasizes that she relies on the beauty of sound, on a heightened awareness of the mathematical relationship between sounds, a bit like Bach had done with his counterpoints of The art of running away.

“We thought that this present [maintenant passé] would be “Guarantor” of the future: that was not the case! », He adds, allowing himself a play on words with the name of the late founding father of the SMCQ.

Walter Boudreau, himself a composer and conductor, still so bright and eloquent at 74, recalls that one of the original roles of music in humanity is seduction: “It goes through the beat, the melody: we came back to it after this radical break. ”

For him, it is normal and desirable that each generation arrives with its project, without necessarily thinking of creating a musical territory that we will inhabit forever.

But then, how to define the signature of the SMCQ? Boudreau is categorical: “The spirit of adventure, the taking of risks. There will also be a creation by Petar-Kresimir Klanac, in our anniversary concert. Each work we commission is a risk ”, then he ignites, angry at our collective fear of risk,“… which goes so far as to prevent an actor from smoking a fake cigarette on stage ”.

But for him, assuming the risk does not exclude going out to meet the public, seeking to develop it. “The youth SMCQ goes to schools, we have published cartoon-portraits of several composers, and we must not forget the Millennium Symphony: 19 composers, thousands of spectators at the foot of Saint-Joseph’s Oratory, all of this in pleasure ! ”

If Walter Boudreau’s plea is somewhat in the form of a balance sheet, it is because he made the decision to pass the torch. Reflection initiated before the pandemic, accelerated by it. “Running an organization like the SMCQ is a bit like walking a wire above Niagara on a stormy day, juggling plates and cups. We need to take time in our lives, ”he said, including his wife, the author Marie Décary, who recently obtained a grant from the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec to write the biography of the musician with the sneakers. red. “I want to compose, conduct occasionally, but I know that there are now plenty of good young conductors. ”

Walter Boudreau nonetheless gave a little burst of pride in concluding: “As artistic director, I am irreplaceable: finding someone like me is impossible. So I manage to leave plans for the next three seasons. ”

The future will tell us the rest of the story.

Visit the website of the Contemporary Music Society of Quebec