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The article analyzes the phenomena of European art of the first half of the 20th century, which not only prepared the birth of electroacoustic music, but also contributed to the dialogue between this trend of academic art and film music. The new view on the phenomenon of sound was the result of scientific and technological progress, powerful social transformations, and a change in the worldview paradigm. The first part of the article discusses the idea of autonomous sound in the works of Luigi Russolo, the concept of “liberation of sound” in the music of Edgar Varèse, and the role of noise design in the creative actions of Dadaists and performances of Antonin Artaud’s “théâtre de la cruauté” (“theatre of cruelty”). The second part is devoted to an in-depth study of sound-noise experiments in the French film music of the 1930s and 1940s. Analyzing samples of musical and noise collages (collaborations of Jacques Tati and Jean Yatove in the film Jour de fête, René Clair and Georges Auric—in À nous la liberté, Jean Vigo and Maurice Jaubert — in L’Atalante, Jean Renoir and Joseph Kosma—in La Bête humaine); methods of manipulating the optical track and the “partition rétrograde” (the product of the “co-authorship” of directors Jean Grémillon and Julien Duvivier and composers Alexis Roland-Manuel and Maurice Jaubert); examples of enriching the timbre palette of film music through electronic instruments (ondes Martenot in the music of Arthur Honegger, Adolphe Borchard, Maurice Thiriet to the films of Abel Gance, Dimitri Kirsanoff, Sacha Guitry, Marcel L’Herbier) in the context of global trends in art and technology, the author comes to the conclusion that by the beginning of the 1950s, the ground for electroacoustic experiments and their immediate introduction into film music was fully prepared, and that in the previous years, filmmakers had realized the expressive power of noise and electronic sounds. Статья посвящена анализу тех явлений европейского искусства первой половины XX века, которые не просто подготовили рождение электроакустической музыки, но и способствовали диалогу между данным направлением академического искусства и киномузыкой. Новый взгляд на феномен звука стал результатом научно-технического прогресса, мощных социальных преобразований, смены мировоззренческой парадигмы. В первой части статьи рассматривается идея автономии шумов в творчестве Луиджи Руссоло, концепция «освобождения звука» в музыке Эдгара Вареза, роль звукошумового оформления в творческих акциях дадаистов и спектаклях «крюотического театра» («театра жестокости») Антонена Арто. Вторая часть посвящена углубленному изучению звукошумовых опытов во французской киномузыке 1930-х–1940-х годов. Анализируя образцы музыкально-шумовых коллажей (сотворчество Жака Тати и Жана Ятова в фильме «Праздничный день», Рене Клера и Жоржа Орика в картине «Свободу нам!», Жана Виго и Мориса Жобера — в «Аталанте», Жана Ренуара и Жозефа Косма — в «Человеке-звере»), способы манипуляций с оптической дорожкой и «метод ретроградной партитуры» (результат «соавторства» режиссеров Жана Гремийона, Жюльена Дювивье и композиторов Алексиса Ролан-Мануэля и Мориса Жобера), примеры обогащения тембровой палитры киномузыки за счет электронных инструментов (волны Мартено в музыке Артюра Онеггера, Адольфа Боршара, Мориса Тирье к картинам Абеля Ганса, Димитрия Кирсанова, Саши Гитри, Марселя Л’Эрбье) в контексте мировых тенденций в искусстве и технологиях, автор приходит к выводу, что к началу 1950-х годов почва для электроакустических экспериментов и их незамедлительного внедрения в киномузыку была полностью подготовлена, а кинематографисты за предыдущие годы уже сумели осознать выразительную силу шумов и электронных звучаний.

Le Théâtre Jorat construit au début du XXème siècle à Mézières, en Suisse, a une importance historique, à travers les implications sociocommunautaires, éducatives et culturelles qu'il a eu au cours du siècle. C'est un espace de communication culturelle et de promotion de créations théâtrales et musicales spécialement conçu pour ceux qui vivent en dehors des centres urbains. A cet endroit ont eu lieu les premières de certaines créations qui se sont établies dans l'histoire de la culture universelle. La création de l'oratorio Le Roi David, spécialement destinée au Théâtre de Mézières, a influencé l'orientation de Honegger vers sa propre création et a eu des effets dans l'évolution de la création vocale-symphonique du XXème siècle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Honegger composed his first sound film scores in 1933-34. For Les misérables, Raymond Bernard, who was under contract at Pathé- Natan to direct big-budget theatrical films that would compete with Paramount's French-language productions, expected Honegger to provide intermittent orchestral underscoring for already filmed sequences that privileged dialogue over music. For Rapt, the musically trained Dimitri Kirsanoff used independent financing to collaborate from the start with Honegger and Arthur Hoérée on what the director called "a hybrid form . . . in which music, image, and dialogue work together." The innovative electroacoustic and sound editing techniques in the soundtrack for Rapt have, I argue, overshadowed the strikingly reciprocal relationship between the soundtrack's more conventional instrumental underscoring and the images on screen. Honegger theorized in 1931 that, in sound film, music's "autonomy" would free it from the burden of mimesis. Instead, the images on screen would teach listeners about music's abstract "reality." In practice, however, in Rapt, mimetic music and musicalized sound effects bridge the gap between aesthetic goals of hybridity and practical demands for intelligible dialogue. My analysis of the abduction, washhouse, storm, and dream sequences in Rapt demonstrates that a successful hybrid of sound and image ultimately has the potential not just to use images to pin down music's elusive "reality," but also to use music's mimetic possibilities to influence our reading of ambiguous imagery. It also shows that music does not need to be in itself groundbreaking in order to contribute to groundbreaking innovations in sound film. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

16 January 1969 was an important day for Czechoslovakia: Jan Palach, a student at the Faculty of Arts, set himself on fire next to the statue of St. Wenceslas in Prague. The artistic scene reacted to the incident through several works. The performance of Arthur Honegger's stage oratorio Jeanne d'Arc au bûcher in Janácek Theatre in Brno was one of them. The article introduces political circumstances and artistic form of the performance, summarizing photos, materials from the legacy of the director Miloš Wasserbauer, various reflections and reviews. For the author of the article the importance of the performance lies in the fact that the Brno opera presented a work which had not been performed on the Czechoslovak stages before. The primary reason for this was the undoubted staging and interpretation demands connected with Honegger's monumental hybrid creation. The fact that Brno put Jeanne d'Arc au bûcher to their repertoire at the time of the revolutionary political changes in Czecho slovakia provided the story of Joan of Arc with an up-to-date message. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this article is to present a broad spectrum of relations between Arthur Honegger—a composer, and Jean Cocteau—a poet and playwright. They are often associated with the group under the patronage of Cocteau called Les Six, to which Honegger undoubtedly belonged. The poet gathered young composers around himself and became the initiator of artistic meetings and concerts. Most of them took place between 1917 and 1921. Cocteau wanted to show the path French music should follow. In accordance to that, his aesthetic manifesto Le Coq et l'Arlequin was published in 1918. In the first section, Honegger's and Cocteau’s aesthetic views concerning music, its elements and expression are presented and confronted. Next, the composer's as well as poet's work is presented by the example of their cooperation. The analysis of mutual relations leads to the conclusion that, despite many different views, Honegger and Cocteau respected each other and were very kind. The composer significantly departed from the ideals of Cocteau and developed his own individual style resulting from a wide range of musical inspirations. Les Six was a short-lived group and Cocteau himself was gradually moving away from his controversial and radical views. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the French music which lacks a special worth and failed to apply a moderately modern approach in composition. It explores the political agenda of the French Popular Front which highlights the unity of workers and intellectuals in solidarity against European fascism. It cited French composers which are affected by the politicized process and is supported by Communist-funded cultural organizations like the Fédération Musicale Populaire. It looks at the technique of socialist realism in France and cited the aesthetics created for French musical traditions and political realities. It also presents the engagement of Communist politics and aesthetics through the compositions Libéns Thaelmann by Charles Koechlin and Jeunesse by Arthur Honegger.