Ondes Martenot at the World Exhibition in Paris in 1937

Abstract

The purpose of the study is to reveal the figurative, semantic and symbolic specificity of the interpretation of the timbre of "Ondes Martenot" in line with the musical, cultural, and socio-political guidelines of the World Exhibition in Paris in 1937. Research methodology. Cultural-historical, interdisciplinary historical-cultural, as well as analytical-musicological methods were essential for this work. The scientific novelty of the work lies in the fact that it introduces for the first time into the circulation of art historians the materials related to the musical component of the artistic events of the Paris World Exhibition of 1937, voiced, including with the help of the timbralness of the "Ondes Martenot", which became the personification of the union of art and technology as a leading symbol of its shares. Conclusions. Interwar France, being at the edge of a difficult socio-political and cultural situation, grasped at the saving idea for it – the holding of another "World's Fair" in 1937, the slogan of which was chosen as the thesis – "Art and technology in modern life". Achieving the set goals and demonstrating to the whole world the high-tech side of France's existence became possible thanks to the musical part of the exhibition, namely "concert-performances" and night shows on the banks of the Seine – "Holidays of sound, water and light". An important component of most of these presentations is the electronic musical instrument "Ondes Martenot". As a result, the popularity of "concert-performances" and night extravaganzas "Saint of Light", the essential component of which were the spiritual and mysterious timbral features of the "Ondes Martenot", stimulated the aesthetic preferences of modernist composers. It was during this period that a significant part of the musical repertoire was created for this instrument, which was always connected precisely with the sphere of the Sacred and the Cosmic. This also marked the leading spiritual, social, and aesthetic guidelines of the World Exhibition of 1937, which, in the most difficult political situation on the eve of the Second World War, tried, including through the diverse involvement of the timbrality of the "Ondes Martenot" involved in the mysterious spectacular actions of this project, unite the human community and avoid global catastrophe.

Keywords: World Exhibition in Paris in 1937, "Feasts of sound, water and light", "concerts-spectacles", Ondes Martenot.