The Owl's Legacy: Music, or Inner Space
- Description
- Reviews
- Citation
- Cataloging
- Transcript
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“The word was music before all else” -- Angelique Ionatos
What defines music? Soldiers marching in tandem create rhythms; Orthodox priests don’t simply speak when performing the liturgy, they chant and sometimes sing; the hammer banging on a board is not that different from the tug of a rope ringing a church bell.
In Greek mythology, Athena (whose symbol is the owl) invents music. This episode focuses primarily on composer Iannis Xenakis and singer Angelique Ionatos, as they delve into the multi-faceted natures of music, its intimate connection with the rhythms of the natural and human worlds, and the interface between technology, natural sound, and musical composition.
“We should raze the Sorbonne and put Chris Marker in its place.” —Henri Michaux
“The primary pleasure of the series, which is incredibly inspiring, is linked to this great banquet of participants, the sum of knowledge they invoke, but above all to the playful flows the editing establishes between their ideas, constructing a formidable network of meanings, historical and cultural perspectives - a veritable encyclopedia of development." —Le Monde
“Why did we have to wait so long for this electrifyingly intelligent film?” —Le Point
“Thirteen words to uncover an entire civilization and reestablish its considerable influence on our modern societies.” —Les Inrockuptibles
“With erudition, Chris Marker questions in each episode what remains Greek within us.” —Philosophie Magazine
Citation
Main credits
Marker, Chris (film director)
Peck, Bob (narrator)
Belkhodja, Catherine (interviewee)
Other credits
Music, Eleni Karaindrou [and 8 others]; camerapersons, Pierre Dupouey, Jimmy Glasberg; editing team, Khadicha Bariha, Nedjma Scialom.
Distributor subjects
Historical Anthropology; Ancient Greece; Chris Marker; France; PhilosophyKeywords
WEBVTT
00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.988 align:middle line:90%
[MUSIC PLAYING]
00:00:02.988 --> 00:00:33.430 align:middle line:90%
00:00:33.430 --> 00:00:36.210 align:middle line:90%
Question-- why does music start?
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[MUSIC PLAYING]
00:00:39.180 --> 00:01:04.920 align:middle line:90%
00:01:04.920 --> 00:01:06.900 align:middle line:90%
[NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]
00:01:06.900 --> 00:01:36.502 align:middle line:90%
00:01:36.502 --> 00:01:38.982 align:middle line:90%
[MUSIC PLAYING]
00:01:38.982 --> 00:02:24.118 align:middle line:90%
00:02:24.118 --> 00:02:26.280 align:middle line:90%
[SPEAKING FRENCH]
00:02:26.280 --> 00:03:10.310 align:middle line:90%
00:03:10.310 --> 00:03:12.950 align:middle line:90%
Next station-- the owl.
00:03:12.950 --> 00:03:14.500 align:middle line:90%
[SPEAKING FRENCH]
00:03:14.500 --> 00:05:37.504 align:middle line:90%
00:05:37.504 --> 00:05:40.426 align:middle line:90%
[ELECTRONIC WAVES AND BEEPS]
00:05:40.426 --> 00:05:43.835 align:middle line:90%
00:05:43.835 --> 00:05:46.270 align:middle line:90%
[OWL CRIES]
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00:05:52.610 --> 00:05:56.360 align:middle line:84%
All year long, groups not
necessarily musically trained
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participate in
the UPIC workshop.
00:05:59.450 --> 00:06:00.980 align:middle line:84%
This one had chosen
to illustrate
00:06:00.980 --> 00:06:03.470 align:middle line:84%
the very myth of
the birth of music
00:06:03.470 --> 00:06:06.700 align:middle line:84%
as it\'s described
in Greek mythology.
00:06:06.700 --> 00:06:10.590 align:middle line:84%
Our titular owl appeared
there under two guises.
00:06:10.590 --> 00:06:15.080 align:middle line:84%
His hoot analyzed,
atomized, metamorphosed
00:06:15.080 --> 00:06:17.150 align:middle line:90%
so many Greek words.
00:06:17.150 --> 00:06:19.940 align:middle line:84%
And his image turned
into musical parameters
00:06:19.940 --> 00:06:22.835 align:middle line:84%
since Xanakis\'s contraption
allowed such equations.
00:06:22.835 --> 00:06:25.078 align:middle line:90%
[ELECTRONIC BUZZING]
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[SPEAKING FRENCH]
00:06:33.780 --> 00:09:40.805 align:middle line:90%
00:09:40.805 --> 00:09:43.058 align:middle line:90%
[MUSIC PLAYING]
00:09:43.058 --> 00:10:11.594 align:middle line:90%
00:10:11.594 --> 00:10:13.660 align:middle line:90%
[SPEAKING FRENCH]
00:10:13.660 --> 00:10:47.366 align:middle line:90%
00:10:47.366 --> 00:10:49.846 align:middle line:90%
[ELECTRONIC TONES]
00:10:49.846 --> 00:12:02.758 align:middle line:90%
00:12:02.758 --> 00:12:04.390 align:middle line:90%
[SPEAKING FRENCH]
00:12:04.390 --> 00:14:53.636 align:middle line:90%
00:14:53.636 --> 00:14:56.116 align:middle line:90%
[MUSIC PLAYING]
00:14:56.116 --> 00:14:59.588 align:middle line:90%
00:14:59.588 --> 00:15:02.564 align:middle line:90%
[NON-ENGLISH SINGING]
00:15:02.564 --> 00:15:52.154 align:middle line:90%
00:15:52.154 --> 00:15:54.649 align:middle line:90%
[BELLS RINGING]
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00:16:20.597 --> 00:16:23.591 align:middle line:90%
[CHOIR MUSIC]
00:16:23.591 --> 00:16:51.660 align:middle line:90%
00:16:51.660 --> 00:16:56.930 align:middle line:84%
Easter, 1988 at Patmos, the
very year the USSR celebrated--
00:16:56.930 --> 00:16:59.330 align:middle line:84%
and I mean celebrated--
its first Millennium
00:16:59.330 --> 00:17:01.610 align:middle line:90%
of Christianity.
00:17:01.610 --> 00:17:04.940 align:middle line:84%
How many floodgates between this
orthodox liturgy whose splendor
00:17:04.940 --> 00:17:08.569 align:middle line:84%
outshines every other and
the music of antiquity, which
00:17:08.569 --> 00:17:11.510 align:middle line:84%
no one knows much about,
except for the fact that it
00:17:11.510 --> 00:17:14.780 align:middle line:84%
is present at every
corner of life?
00:17:14.780 --> 00:17:16.700 align:middle line:84%
But hadn\'t music
changed its role
00:17:16.700 --> 00:17:19.280 align:middle line:90%
with the advent of Christianity?
00:17:19.280 --> 00:17:21.170 align:middle line:84%
Rather than an
ornament of daily life,
00:17:21.170 --> 00:17:23.750 align:middle line:84%
hadn\'t it been the mirror with
all the cruelties about life
00:17:23.750 --> 00:17:28.639 align:middle line:84%
were turned down-side up and a
cry for another life, a call so
00:17:28.639 --> 00:17:30.680 align:middle line:84%
strong that you didn\'t
even have to be a believer
00:17:30.680 --> 00:17:32.900 align:middle line:90%
to understand it.
00:17:32.900 --> 00:17:36.170 align:middle line:84%
Then Byzantium, instead
of being one more landmark
00:17:36.170 --> 00:17:38.420 align:middle line:84%
along the musical
path of Western man
00:17:38.420 --> 00:17:40.175 align:middle line:84%
had been the mint
of a new mystery.
00:17:40.175 --> 00:17:43.010 align:middle line:90%
00:17:43.010 --> 00:17:46.725 align:middle line:84%
If a god could make himself a
man, expose himself to frailty
00:17:46.725 --> 00:17:50.930 align:middle line:84%
and fear, human misery,
in turn, could make itself
00:17:50.930 --> 00:17:53.905 align:middle line:90%
a god whose name was music.
00:17:53.905 --> 00:17:56.132 align:middle line:90%
[CHOIR MUSIC]
00:17:56.132 --> 00:18:10.284 align:middle line:90%
00:18:10.284 --> 00:18:12.200 align:middle line:90%
[SPEAKING FRENCH]
00:18:12.200 --> 00:18:52.472 align:middle line:90%
00:18:52.472 --> 00:18:54.730 align:middle line:90%
Here, a memory flashes.
00:18:54.730 --> 00:18:56.890 align:middle line:90%
Once Xenakis said on TV--
00:18:56.890 --> 00:18:59.794 align:middle line:90%
[SPEAKING FRENCH]
00:18:59.794 --> 00:19:06.580 align:middle line:90%
00:19:06.580 --> 00:19:08.290 align:middle line:84%
And we seized the
occasion to ask him
00:19:08.290 --> 00:19:10.390 align:middle line:90%
if he\'d still sign that.
00:19:10.390 --> 00:19:12.040 align:middle line:90%
[SPEAKING FRENCH]
00:19:12.040 --> 00:24:38.386 align:middle line:90%
00:24:38.386 --> 00:24:42.116 align:middle line:90%
[MUSIC PLAYING]
00:24:42.116 --> 00:26:07.766 align:middle line:90%
