Glossary entry (derived from question below)
French term or phrase:
coupure
English translation:
rupture/interruption/discontinuity
Added to glossary by
David Vaughn
Jul 18, 2010 12:06
13 yrs ago
1 viewer *
French term
Cette coupure s’expérimente
French to English
Art/Literary
Poetry & Literature
The word "coupure" is used repeatedly, apparently meaning a radical change. I have a couple ideas, but they don't satisfy me much. Any suggestions would be appreciated. I am more interested in ways of rendering "coupure" than in the mini-phrase above.
Here is where the idea is first introduced in my text, which concerns the composer Pierre Schaeffer. I have purposely defined the question as literary rather than music.
"Or, cette « effrayante » possibilité que recèle n’importe quel donné sonore à surgir comme phénomène musical se produit à chaque fois à la faveur d’une coupure. Cette coupure s’expérimente de trois façons, chacune en corrélation avec les deux autres :
1] La coupure du sillon fermé.
2] La coupure du montage.
3] La coupure acousmatique."
Here is where the idea is first introduced in my text, which concerns the composer Pierre Schaeffer. I have purposely defined the question as literary rather than music.
"Or, cette « effrayante » possibilité que recèle n’importe quel donné sonore à surgir comme phénomène musical se produit à chaque fois à la faveur d’une coupure. Cette coupure s’expérimente de trois façons, chacune en corrélation avec les deux autres :
1] La coupure du sillon fermé.
2] La coupure du montage.
3] La coupure acousmatique."
Proposed translations
(English)
| 3 +2 | interruption/discontinuity |
SJLD
|
| 4 +2 | cut |
SMcG (X)
|
| 3 | a shift / marking a new direction / a departure |
ormiston
|
| 3 | caesura (or cesura) |
Melissa McMahon
|
Proposed translations
+2
3 hrs
Selected
interruption/discontinuity
other possibilities
Peer comment(s):
| agree |
Helen Shiner
: Yes to discontinuity, in the sense of rupture.
25 mins
|
| agree |
Alison Sabedoria (X)
: Discontinuity seems to crop up fairly often in articles about Schaeffer's music.
1 hr
|
4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer.
Comment: "I went with rupture, my working solution, but included discontinuity in the first appearance. Thanks to all."
+2
16 mins
cut
To me its a play on multiple meanings of the word 'cut'; being at the base of the work of Schaefer. The physical act of cutting the magnetic tape (how he created his music), how sound is cut into the surface of a vinyl record, cut as in an edit (also used in film editing venacular), cut as in rupture (of sound) etc. Pierre Schaefer of course being the granddady of the technique of what we now call "cut and paste".
Note from asker:
| The text focuses on the period before tape recorders. I would also worry that "cut" adds extra meanings the French doesn't possess - in French we don't "coupe" a record. |
Peer comment(s):
| agree |
Isabelle Parsley
: indeed
28 mins
|
| agree |
Jennifer Levey
: Yes - and items 1 to 3 in the list are, precisely, examples of things that are 'cut' in the context of 'musique concrète'.
1 hr
|
1 hr
a shift / marking a new direction / a departure
the 'en faveur d'une coupure' is challenging - do you think it means "paving the way towards..."?
I wonder if you should not find a different term for each of the examples given ?
I see the term as meaning breaking away from the traditional, not necessarily a musical term
I wonder if you should not find a different term for each of the examples given ?
I see the term as meaning breaking away from the traditional, not necessarily a musical term
15 hrs
caesura (or cesura)
This does have a technical sense as a form of interruption in music and poetry, but has also come to be used more generally and in a more radical sense in various art/philosophy discourses, to mean the kind of deep shift/discontinuity I think you have in mind here, due to Hölderlin's theory of the caesura/cesura. Might work here!
Discussion