Music and Clowning in Europe, 20th-21st centuries
Abstract
This research project explores the interactions between music and clowning from two perspectives: first, by investigating the uses and functions of music and sound in European clowning traditions, and second, by revisiting the notion of musical humor and introducing the category of the ‘clownesque’ – taking Gustav Mahler’s Seventh Symphony as a case study. Clowning practices can inform modern instrumental music, I suggest, because of the cross-fertilization of ‘cultivated’ and ‘popular’ genres characteristic of this era. My musicological perspective on clowning will throw new light on this tradition; and, in turn, interpreting musical humor in the 20th century through the lens of clowning practices will emphasize the physicality of musical gestures.
Keywords
Full Text:
PDFReferences
Adorno, Theodor W. 1992. Mahler: A Musical Physiognomy. Transl. Edmund Jephcott. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
Bergson, Henri. 1900/2013. Le Rire. Presented by Daniel Grojnowski and Henri Scepi, edited by Paul-Antoine Miquel. Paris: Flammarion.
Davison, Jon. 2013. Clown, Readings in Theater Practice. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Goudard, Philippe. 2013. “Le Clown, Poète du Désordre”. Revue Sens-Dessous (Editions de l’Association Paroles) 11, no 1: 129-138.
Lecoq, Jacques. 1997. Le Corps Poétique: Un enseignement de la création théâtrale. Arles: Actes Sud.
De Valck, Marijke. 2005. “The Sound Gag: the use of sound for comic effect in the films of Jacques Tati”. New Review of Film and Television Studies 3, no 2: 223-35.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.7358/gn-2021-001-stol
Copyright (©) 2021 Anna Stoll Knecht – Editorial format and Graphical layout: copyright (©) LED Edizioni Universitarie

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Announcements
Forthcoming: Vol 8 (2025) No 1
Congrès de fondation de l’AIGF (Association internationale de géographie francophone)
La géographie francophone au défi du monde contemporain
Volume 1
A cura di Pape Sakho e Dino Gavinelli
© 2001 LED Edizioni Universitarie di Lettere Economia Diritto