IMAGE MUSIC TEXT ROLAND BARTHES says selected and wanted by Steen Heath A division nd Giroux= 178 | auage ~ muse = raxr responsiblity in his own person for what he is never alone in writing. As in the modern tert the stressing of codes, referenes, discontinuous observations, anthological ges- tures, mulipias the written line, and this not by virtue of ‘some metaphysical appeal but by the play ofa combinatory tet which opous in the cule space of the Uwe. wht is started by the one is coatinued by the other, unendinaly. 168 The Grain of the Voice Language, according to Benveniste, is the only semiotic systom capable of inerprering another semiotic system (hough undoubtedly there exist limit works in the course ‘of which a system feign selPinterpretation ~The rt of the Fagus). How, then, docs language manage when it has to interpret music? Als, i seem, very badly. If one looks at the normal practice of music criti (or, which is often the same thing of conversations ‘on’ msi) it can readily be seen that a work (or its performance) is oaly ever trans Ini into the poorest of linguistic categories: the adjective. ‘Manic, by natural bent, js that which at once roceies an adjective. The adjective is inevitable: this music is in, this exection is that. No doubt the moment we _att info‘ subjet (for an aril, Tor @ conversation) there. ‘is nothing Ket but o give it predicates; inthe case oft er, suck pri lin le he epithet. Naturally his epithet, {which we are constandy ed by weakness or fascination Gitte parlour ime: talk about a piece of music without ‘using a single adjective) har an economic function: the predicate is aliays the bulwark with which the subject's ‘imaginary protects itself from the loss which threatens it. ‘The man who provides himself of is provided with an adjective is now hurt, now pleased, but almays onstnted. ‘Thote is an imaginary in music whose function isto te- assure, to consitute the subject hearing it (Would it be that nisi is dangerous ~ the old Platonic idee? that music is an access to Jvissance, to loss, es numerous ethnographic ‘and popular examples would tend to show’) and thistan | itor = monte ~ reer ‘magne matey one lenge ih ete ‘etal bse nto oases areata or pedeate neetatn fe lea on She eres canna sce Th mena Se et tater an tin ae seein coh unt titi ae es § cee el or nape “node of sian, Ts TEN dt Gre fo wine in he ase Tide Gd not the sontngnt wert ie State structure nics ‘was immediately adjectival, each mode Soo fact el npn aa pon, ae ae ict vai dot sly Samp a ratudon lu, vlyony an he Shan tem Som fo Deby riots saa tt pl nda of ono lee, prsto, amit) pot enters weh te sea ene a wach ne gene mato wma ‘a mash the mas of te and see gor carer pdtton Go ae, Sea poeta dro "ec tmmn tienda? Ar were othe isa a ta ote ie Fo ue eae ce te aes ring ses eile tet woud te ney ok st oreo th win fm ert tng ih F'cio is ser bon done sn wich novo 1 oven the tron ar the et of Sg ee ‘hp mach were an tem mY aang Talat eter Giverny teste you Eade S20 oat nse lovers eme sine or eral Soe Sy iu te unis chs of ong te Enmentr an sing tn he ay of ed ‘farthing oneal he aga on ELT pet ‘The Grain ofthe Votce | 181 “Teds this displacement that 1 waat to outline, not with "sad the woe of mac but nly pat of vel music (ed or méldi): the verv precise space (genre) of ‘Recenter herent wes chal eae sivay give a name to ths signer at de level of which, T belive, the temptation of ethos can be liquidated (end ‘thus tho adjective banished): the grain, the grain of the Volos ‘when the lator isin a dual portare, a dual production ngage and of muse What [shal sttept to say ofthe ‘gran’ wil of course, ‘be only the apparently abstract side, the impossible account ofanindividual thrill that constantly experience in stening to singing. In order to disengage this ‘gain’ fom the ack owiedged valves of vocal music, T shall use a twofold ‘opposition: theoretical, between the pheno-text and che ‘geno-text (borowing from Julia Keiser), and peradigmae te, between two singers, one of whom I like very much (although he is no Tooger heard), the other very litle (although one hears 20 ope but him), Panzera and Fischer- Dieskau (here merely ciphers: Iam not diving the fst ‘or attacking the secon), ‘Liston to a Russian bas (4 church bass ~ opera i a genre ‘in which the voice las gone over ints entirety to dramatic expresivity, a voice with a grain which litle signifies): Something i there, manifest and stubborn (one Bears only ‘hat, beyond (or before) the meaning ofthe words, theit form (the litany, the melisma, and even the style of execu tion: something which is directly the can(or's body, brovght fo your cars in ane and the same movement from deep down fn the cavities, the muscles, che membranes, the carlages, and from dexp dawn in the Slavonic language, as though & Single skin fined the inner fesh ofthe performer and the182 | 1naoe ~ uste ~ ext music he sings. The voi is not personal: it expresses hothing of the canto, of his soul cs wot original all Rus Sian eantors have roughly the same voice) and at the same time itis inividval: thas us hear a body whieh has no elit ‘entity, no ‘peconalit’, but which is nevertheless Separate ody. Above all this Voice bea along. diecily {He ayDoT, over the ineligible, the expressive: hee thrown in frot of ws lke a packet, eth Father, his phallic statue, The ‘ speaking 1 ‘era Thane “This we can se in song (pending the extension of this istnetio to the whole of musi) the two texts desribed by Jolia Kristeva, The phon-sone GF the transposition be allowed) covers al t55-petomien, all the features which Delong to the sia gf th language bog sang, the rules othe pire Ged form of te meta, he composer's ‘Mil, he ule ofthe interetaon ia short, everthing fhe perormance whi sia the service of communiar tion, presentation, expresion, everything Which it tomar to talk about, which forms the se of cultural Sls (the matter of acknowlsged tastes, of fashions, of Gite! commentaries) which takes ‘ts bearing direly fn the dclogcl alibi of «period (subjectivity, expe Shity, eamatism’ “permit of the aris). The gonosong ste volume ofthe singing and speaking voice, Sie Spec. where sgpcations geminal Tom. wit lenge ad nit very matey i forms a sting ‘ay vg othng Yo do wih communication, epeena Tia ot eling) expression; that apex or hat ps) ft prediction where the melody rely works atthe Ianguage nt at what it ay, but the volpruousness oF soundesignfes ot ters ~ where melody explores how the language works a etx wih that work. Its ina very simple word but which must be taken seousy, the ‘The Grain ofthe Voce | 183 detin ofthe language. From the point of view of the pheno-song, Fischer- Dieskau is assuredly an artist beyond reprosch: everything in the (Semantic and lyrical) structure i reepected and yet nothing seduces, nothing sways us to jouiteace, His art ‘sinordinately expressive (the diston is dramatic, the pauses, the checkings and relasings of breath, occ ike shudders of passion) and hence never exceeds culure: here iti the ‘oul which accompanies the tong, not the body. What is diffleat is forthe body to accompany the musical diction not with a movement of emotion but with a “gesture. support; all the moreso sine the whole of musical pode {oY teaches not the culture ofthe “grain” ofthe voice but the emotive modes ofits delvery~the myth of respiration, How many singing teachers have we not heard prophesying that the at of yoeal music rested entirely om the mastery, the conect discipline of breathing! The breath is the ‘eum, the soul swelling of breaking, and any exchsive art of Breathing is likely to be a secretly myctical art (a rystcism levelled down to the measure ofthe fong-paying xecord). The Tong, stupid ongin (lights for cats), swells ‘but gets no erection; itis in the throat, place where the ‘phonie metal hardens and is segmented, inthe mask that ‘Signifance explodes, bringing not the soul but juissance. ‘With FD, I seem only to hear the lungs, never the tongue, the glottis, the teth, the mucous membranes, the nove, All of Panzera's art, onthe contrary, was inthe Iter, not ‘in the bellows (dimple technical feature: you never heard him dreathe but only divide up the plas). An extreme "igour of thought regulated the prosody ofthe enunciation and the phonic economy ofthe French language; prejudices 5, Shichi why the et way to sad me fo ascepay te teaiing with orale approrcae boat moyen Agia oot “solemn pst nowt seth Po the ears? ‘hips Str, Lau, Pats 129.184 | isaoe — wosie ~ TEXT (generally stemming from oratorical and_eetesiastcal ‘Setion) were overthrowa. With regard to the consonants, too reedly thought to constitute the very armature of our Tanguage (which isnot, however, a Semitic one) and always prescribed a6 needing to be ‘articulate’, detached, empha- ‘Gand inorder tofu the clarity of meaning, Pazera recom ‘mended! that in many cases they bs patinatd, piven the wear fofalanguage that had been vin, functioning, nd working for ages past, that they be made simply the springboard for the admirable vowels. Thee lay the ‘truth’ of language fot it unetionality(lasty, expressivity, communication) tad the range of vowels estived all the sigflance (which iz meaning in its potential voluptuousness: the opposition ‘of éand @ (eo neccesary in conjugation), the purity ~ almost lecironl, so niveh wast sound tightened, raised, exposed, field = of the most French of vowels, the d (a vowel not ‘derived by Freach from Latin). Similly, Panzera cared bis Ps beyond the norms of the singee~ without denying those norms. His r was ofcourse rolled, as in every lasic nt of singing, but the roll bad nothing peasentike or ‘Canadian about it; ie wos aa artical rol, the paradoxical State of @ Kettersound at once totally abstract (by its Inetalc brevity of vibration) and totally material (by its Inaifest deepootedsess in the action of the throu) ‘Ths phonetice—am [alone in peresiving it? am I hearing ‘oiees within the voioe? but ist it the truth of the vole to be allucinated? isn't the entire space ofthe voie an {nfeite one? which was doubles he meaning of Saussure’s ‘work oa anagrams does aot exhaust signfonce (which is Tnexhaustibe) butt does at est holdin ches the attempts at expresive reduction operated by a whole clture aginst the poem and its melody. ‘ould not be too dificult 1 date that culture, to define it historically. FD now reigns more or lest unchallenged ‘ver the recording of vocal music; he has recorded every The Gran of the Voie | 185 (hing If you tke Schubert but not FD, then Schubert is today forbiden youan xl of hat poste censor (Ceaorship by repeton) which charcttes mas cle though it is aver enitioe, His at expres, drama, sentient clear borne bya vis lacking in tay tal? isang reg ft tt wine emch ta anerage clare Suh a cafe, dland by the growth of the numberof Ustaners andthe dleapearaee of practi tioners (00 tore amateur), eens art wall Drovded they be cleat that they “ra on {nd represent sified (he “meaning” of poem). an ‘7 Ghat lanoculater pleasure (by reducing it fo Known, Goed emotion) and reson. the suber to whal i ‘music con Be sold: what i ad about, predicate, by Institution, Cricam, Opinion. Pazera does not bone to tis alte (he could not have dove, heveg sng before the coming ofthe mierogoove recon; moreover f doubt ‘Wether, wee he singing todey sat would be recognized {even simply ered) is ele, wey great between the ars, was that ofan excuiely Bowgeois at (ae tha isin ao way peti-bourgeot) nearing the cad oft net dcrlopment and, by a familar distortion, sopanted feet History Tei perhaps, peciely and les paradoiealy than it sens, beets thio art was ae’ margoal ‘mandarin, that it was able to bear traces of signifiance, to saeape the tyranny of meaning, 2 ‘The ‘grain’ of the yoice isnot ~ of is not merely ~ its timbre; the signfiance it opens cannot beter be defined, indeed, than by the very fiction between the music and something else, which something else is the particular language (and nowise the messaps). The song mur speak, "ius write ~ for what is produced atthe level of the geno song is finally writing. This sung writing of language is, as T see it, what the French melodie sometimes tied (0186 | 1Magk ~ Music ~ TEXT accomplish, Tam well aware that the Gecman Hed was intimately bound up with the German language vis the Romantic poem, that the poetical culture of Schumann ‘has immense and that tht ame Schumann wed 10 say of ‘Schubere that had he lived into old ape he would have set ae Mhte of German leratare Wo musty but I tink sever: theles tha the storie! meaning ofthe fled must be sought fn the musi Gf only Beeause of its popular orsins). By Contrast, the historical meaning of the melodie i a certain Caltue of the French language. As we know, che Romantic Soctey of France is more orstrical than textual; what the Poetry vould not accomplish on its own, however, the Frode has ocasionally socomplished with it, working at ‘Ge language through the poem. Such a work (in the speei- (Soy here scknowledged #) isnot to be seen in the general ‘au ofthe mélodes produced which are too accommodating owards minor poets the model of the peti-bourgeois ‘Sinance, and salon usage, Dut i some few pices it i Tnulopatable~anthologically (alte by chance) in certain tongs by Fauréand Dapae, masively inthe ater (prosodic) Faure and the vooal work of Debussy (even if Pléas is ‘hen sung badly dramatically). What is engaged in these orks is, mock more than a musical syle a practical election (if one may put i€ ke that) on the language: there is a progresive movement from the language to the poem, fom the poem tothe soag and from the song (9 its Perormanoe. Which means that the mélodie ins litle to Ao with the history of music and much with the theory ofthe text. Here agai, the signifier must be resistibated. Compare to sune dest, both of them famous: that of ore aad that of Mélisande, Whatever, Musirssky's intentions, the death of Boi is expresive or, if prefered, Iystrico, itis overloaded with historical, affective contents Performances of the death cannot be but dramatic: it {fb the rump ofthe pheno-es, the smothering of lance The Gran of the Votes | 187 under the soul 3 signed. Métzande, on the con ‘ly le promdealy. Two etemes re fon, monet. together: he prot itl ofthe dentaion andthe pare prsed scpmestaton ofthe enunciation; between {he to a alutry ap (ied ut in Bors) ~ the pao, that eto ey, acorn to Aol Gy not, pion thas mon pe ng, scooped eno death, nde deth. Meise ie mou ey mos (ander. ‘ning the tern ints beri ems): noting rs {vate ith hs andthon thn compan to redandans simpy the prodaction ofa san wiih the function of prevating the singe from Clap Tipreive, Ar withthe Ronan bss he emboli ibe dc) is thrown immediately (without mediation) bore (hiro fresta th took en which bafta whats -totexnesvecan only bcld an inleseal; Mebeande’s = Gea e'moving, which meno ha shite something in the cai ofthe sien “The medi disappeared ~ snk othe bottom ~ fora ood nny reasons oa east te dnappearance took on & food many smpecs, Dover it succumbed to it lon ing, this bing itis te viicaloor form ot clare origin. Mass goo moss sorts, ain) ba tt bind, prefer ether the more pathetic orchestra (ces of ater) or ler bourse avrumont than the iano Gharpsichor, erumpe). Above al, however he deh of the mde gos alongwith a much wider historical peaomenon toa large extent unconnected tothe his ‘fis or of master: te Preach ace sbandoning {is aagage, ao, assure, as «normative et of noble ‘eloes lant epee, corse) ~ ra feast this does ot boter me wey much or hse ar itational oer = 5 but asa specs of pear, of til te whee language work for moins, tat in perversion remember eth Tapuany the’ sote ~a Lote by Pape Sol, ee pa188 | amage ~ music ~ Text theatre of the return ofthe prosodic and metical work of the language), “The ‘anit body inthe oie ait sns the and astm, te lin a pesto IFT prcive the ‘ran? st jl afmue and acoord hs “am 4 here! tase Ge omens of th ext the wore), inevitably a'tp sew theme of evtntion which will erly i inividsl Tam detenined to Iten to my ration ‘uth bay oft manor wor singing 0: laying and train vefots Bot inno way abject’ (3 nt tepals ng in Ai fcaue hoped forint going ons ~to express — tPesh tu one cnt toe) Te eatin hl be made euuide of any Tem, opaying not only he Iw eit a ea ha oat eon ‘yoni sta the vie hidden heind "He ot "Pike Singers esp willbe ranged in. what shay bs eld, sce tine mater Of my choosing without Duk bog any west hoe of me vo prosatonal igor Thus T sl feny extol such abd. sich SERRE, ttuctnom, miner, forgpten, dead perhaps rd turn away fom sch another, an acknowledged star Gt rnin from examples, no doubt of merely bio Spt pica sal extend my choice sees all ‘fetus of Vea! musi ising popular musi, where L Stal have 0 iftcalty in rdbeoverng the doction ‘inet the phonosng end the enosons (one porular Togas havea grt whl others, however fous, 900 Mints mor, eevig aside the vo, thera — or the IR t= prin nent ne eae 9 Gach gang to ay open gto alts volume, {ere ists perforners body which agin forces me 4s crluation, 1 stall not judge 2 performace according {2 dle of interpretation, the constants of sil an)+ The Grain of the Voice | 189 ‘ay highly itleson), wich slmost al belong tothe pheno tong (sal not wax irc concerning the vigour the “ian, the “warm the ‘espect for What rien, etc), but scoring to the image ofthe body (iho Baur) Sven me, ean Beas with certainty ~ the erty ofthe body, of til thatthe harlow! paying of Wands Tandowska comes from he fone boy and ot fom the pty dgial sone of 20 many harpsichord (eo ‘uch 50 that Is diferent instrument, At for Pisco Imus, know at once which part ofthe body payne > iF eam oo ote, dy, mle adr hes, the clutch of the Sagestip (pie the seep Abus of the ss). o fen the conta iste oe erotic par ofa pans body the pd a the Sages whos, ‘pain’ Inco rarly heard is hurl nosey teal ot today, under the presi ofthe muss long playing record there eems to be a fttening out of technqus which 1s ‘radical in thatthe various mamses of yg teal Antena ut ino perfcin nthig is tbat pene). “his dcusion bas bon inte fo esc mis oe withot saying, However, thatthe simple conidertion grat fn mone eoud kad io diferent hsory of mae fiom the one we know now (chs purely pene-texta, Were we to sud in refnng a fea “eshetc” of smuscal pleasure, thea, doubles. we would atach ist Importance tothe formidable weak a tonality accomplished yr moder,