Timbre and Colour in French Music: A Symposium

Conservatoire stairway

The symposium will be take place on 20 and 21 February 2025 at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, UK.

Supported by the New Berlioz Edition Trust.

Booking is now open for the French Music Research Hub’s Symposium on Timbre and Colour in French Music, held at Royal Birmingham Conservatoire on Thursday 20 and Friday 21 February.

RBC Symphony Orchestra with Karen Ní Bhroin 20 Feb 2025 7.30pm - 8.45pm

Boulez: Sur incises 21 Feb 2025 1.05pm - 2pm

About the symposium

Je suis bien obligé de croire que je suis musicien ; mais, du moins, j'ai au-dessus des autres la connaissance des couleurs et des nuances » (Jean-Philippe Rameau, 1727)
[La musique] est de couleurs et de temps rythmés… » (Claude Debussy, 1907)
J’ai utilisé dans mes œuvres un très grand nombre de complexes de sons qui sont en même temps des complexes de couleur » (Olivier Messiaen, 1985)
J’adore mêler les timbres, rechercher toujours la couleur la plus adéquate à l’expression de mon univers intérieur » (Camille Pépin, 2020)

The related traits of ‘timbre’ and ‘couleur’ are readily apparent in much French music. They join other terms, such as lumière, clarté, classicisme and goût, widely used to encapsulate the characteristics common to French music. Timbre and Colour speak to the notion that French composers are interested in the quality of sounds themselves at least as much as the ways in which they are put together.

The symposium seeks to explore:

exemplars of timbre and colour in francophone music from any historical period;
the nature of engagement with timbre and colour by composers, musicians and writers on music operating in or associated with France;
the role of text(s) in relationship to musical timbre and colour;
the relationship between French music and the visual arts;
the role and resonance of relationships between keys, colours and instruments in the baroque era;
which repertoire, figures or groups are excluded by using timbre and colour as signifiers of Frenchness;
how far back francophone interest in the quality of sound extends;
organology, the role of instruments and technology in cultivating French perspectives on timbre and colour;
the implications for performance of exploring francophone notions of timbre and colour.

The symposium forms the academic centrepiece to RBC’s year-long French Season and will include two concerts of French music in RBC’s Bradshaw Hall:

an orchestra concert on the Thursday evening (20th February) including the UK première of Berlioz’s orchestration of Meyer’s Marche marocaine.
a rare opportunity to hear Boulez’s scintillating Sur incises on the Friday lunchtime

Conference committee:

Christopher Dingle
Deborah Mawer
Caroline Potter
Graham Sadler
Shirley Thompson
John Thwaites

Details of the papers can be found in the draft schedule (see below):

All sessions are in the Recital Hall at Royal Birmingham Conservatoire.

Concerts are in RBC’s Bradshaw Hall.

Thursday 20 February

1.15pm	Welcome
1.30pm	Session 1
	Timbre and Colour in François Couperin’s writing for the bass viol Lucy Robinson (Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama) ‘A curious piano with stops’: Ravel and the luthéal revisited Elisabeth Salverda (LUCA Lemmens, KU Leuven/Orpheus Institute) New Soundscapes: Ohana’s Microintervals and Innovative Use of the Zither Caroline Rae (Cardiff University)
3pm	Tea/coffee break
3.30pm	Session 2
	L’univers sonore de la romance française (1780–1830) Clotilde Verwaerde (Université Vincennes, Paris) Marguerite Canal & her three Esquisses Méditerranéennes for piano: An exploration of Impressionist colours and timbres [lecture-recital] Jeanne Hourez (Southwestern University, USA)
4.45pm	Plenary
5pm	Break for food
7.30pm	Orchestra concert Bradshaw Hall

Friday 21 February

9am	Session 3
	‘Bon goût et bonne flûte’: the colours created by recorders in French Baroque music. [lecture-recital] James Brookmyre (Cardiff University) Through instrumental colour: A path Dufourt – Bedrossian Damien Bonnec (ATER – Rennes 2 university)
10.15am	Tea/coffee break
10.45am	Session 4
	Individual instrumental colours as aesthetic idea in expressionist productions by Les Ballet Suédois Jonas Lundblad (Åbo Academy University) Aspects of French Performance Practice in Chopin: Meaning and Sound-Colour in the Tenuto Indications of Alfred Cortot Maya Ann Morris (Cardiff University) Registration et écriture polyphonique dans les versets d’Hymnes pour orgue (1623) de Jehan Titelouze Sébastien Bujeau (Sorbonne Université)
12.15pm	Lunch
1.05pm	Concert Bradshaw Hall Boulez Sur incises
2.10pm	Session 5
	Timbre as a meta-parameter in Debussy’s ‘La Terrasse des audiences du clair de lune’ Benjamin Lassauzet (Université Clermont-Auvergne) The notion of Klangfarbenmelodie in René Leibowitz’ compositions and musical thinking Sebastiano Gubian (Universität der Künste, Berlin) George Benjamin’s ‘colourful’ reputation: timbre, spectralism, and francophone identity Martin Scheuregger (University of Lincoln)
3.40pm	Tea/coffee break
4pm	Session 6
	Timbre as Historiographic Tool in Stravinsky’s Symphonies of Wind Instruments Campbell Shiflett (Oklahoma City University) Proto-Impressionism in Piano Works of Camille Saint-Saëns [lecture-recital] Geoffrey Burleson (Hunter College & CUNY Graduate Center)
5.15pm	Round table
6pm	Close

RBC is located at 200 Jennens Rd, Birmingham, B4 7XR.

By rail

Birmingham New Street Station is a ten/fifteen minute walk from the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire: leave the station heading towards the Bullring and walk along St Martin's Queensway, which is slightly to your left on exit from the station, to come out on the other side of the Bullring shopping centre (next to the iconic Selfridges building). Cross the road towards Moor Street rail station. Once in front of the station turn left and walk straight ahead along Moor Street Queensway and keep on until it becomes Jennens Road: pass the Clayton Hotel, cross Masshouse Lane and Park Street, and continue uphill past a Subway and the Unite Students building. The main reception for our music building is on the right.

By road

Please note: the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire falls within the Birmingham Clean Air Zone: non-compliant vehicles will face a daily charge for entering the zone. More information, including how to check if your vehicle is subject to the charge, can be found at the Brum Breathes website.

The Royal Birmingham Conservatoire does not have its own carpark, but is adjacent to a City Council carpark at Millennium Point: the main entrance is on Howe Street, off Jennens Road. For sat nav: use postcode B4 7AP.

From the M6, Junction 6: follow signs to the City Centre on the A38(M). After the first exit follow signs for Ring Road and Convention Centre. You immediately come to Dartmouth Circus roundabout. Take the first exit (Dartmouth Middleway, A4540). At the A47 junction, turn right onto A47 (Jennens Road).

From the M5, Junction 3: follow the A456 into Birmingham for approximately 6 miles, through the tunnel at Five Ways, onto Broad Street. Follow signs for the A38 (Aston Expressway) onto Great Charles Queensway. Proceed under the tunnel at St Chad's Queensway. Indicate left as you exit and go down to the roundabout at the bottom. Take the third exit onto James Watt Queensway. Turn left onto the A47 and subsequently right into Cardigan Street and the carpark is on the right.

From the M42, Junction 6: follow A45 City Centre for approximately 7 miles. You will then reach a large traffic roundabout (Bordesley Circus). Follow signs for the M6 into Watery Lane Middleway. Continue to follow signs for the M6 through the first roundabout. At the next roundabout, take the first exit into Curzon Street. Turn right into Cardigan street and the car park is on the left.

By air

Birmingham is served by Birmingham Airport; there is a direct rail link from the airport to Birmingham New Street station (see ‘by rail’ above). The major London airports and other UK international airports are also linked to the rail network, which will allow connections to Birmingham New Street.