Music of the North, cont’d

Apparently, I am not the only one interested in northern soundscapes right now. Today, I received the following email invitation, which I would like to extend:

You are cordially invited to attend the Interdisciplinary International Conference “Music and the Imaginary of the North and the Cold” at the Université du Québec à Montréal on Wednesday 18th, Thursday 19th and Friday 20th, January 2012.

The conference program is now available on the website of the CRILCQ at the following address :

 http://www.crilcq.org/colloques/2012/musiques_et_imaginaire_du_nord.asp

The conference covers just about every angle of northern sounds: symphonic representations of the aurora borealis, throat singing (including a paper on Tanya Tagaq Gillis), northern jazz, Glenn Gould and the idea of north, Terje Isungset and his ice instruments, Norwegian black metal, and electronic interpretations of the north (the program helpfully includes an abstract after each paper listed. FYI, many of the abstracts are in French. For an introduction to the topic in English, see my last post).

On Thursday, there will be a “Concert Imaginaire Nord” at 8pm.

The concert will be held at the Maison de la culture

 Maisonneuve, 4200, rue Ontario Est

 Cost is $3.

 Photographie: Inuksuk, © Michelle Boudreau, 2002

My (fairly loose) translation of the description of the concert (the original French is on the program):

Come listen to winter, the ice and snow that fills the blue sky of the Arctic! The concert “A Northern Imaginary” presents a program of work from dance, film and radio in the heart of winter. The imaginary North–or the North imagined and the music that it inspires–with its breath of crackling frost to the all encompassing white.

Program:

1. Cornouailles (extrait), film documentaire réalisé par Pierre Perrault, musique de Ginette Bellavance et de Daniel Toussaint
2. Icicle, Robert Aitken
3. Nuvattuq, François Morel
4. Three Studies for Flute, Derek Charke
5. Icebergs et soleil de minuit, Simon Martin
6. L’Intruse – La chasse Caribous, Les roches chantent et Le baliseur, Michelle Boudreau

I won’t be able to make it to the conference or concert, but please let me know all about it if you have the good fortune to attend.