Intermediality and Bauhaus as a Model for IRCAM
Alexander Rothe, Professor, Department of Musicology, Columbia University
The Bauhaus served as a model for the Institute for Research and Coordination in Acoustics/Music (IRCAM) in Paris, which was founded by Pierre Boulez and opened its doors to the public in 1977. As Boulez wrote in 1970, “we are still living today—and particularly in the graphic arts—on ideas systematically explored by a small group working in an institute [i.e. the Bauhaus] in which research was carried on for its own sake.” Inspired by the Bauhaus’s teamwork of artists and technicians and its collaboration with industry, Boulez envisioned IRCAM as an institute for research and experimentation that would overcome the issues confronting the new music landscape in France. In the second part of the presentation, I will show how several of Boulez’s musical compositions demonstrate intermediality in their incorporation of ideas and visual techniques from Paul Klee, who lectured at the Bauhaus.