À la vie éternelle
Catholic liturgy, excerpt of the show La Messe, France Culture, 2011.
Chorality | The quality of speech being organized by multiple parties. Depending on whether its form is plural or unified, organized or spontaneous, chorality can either constitute subordination to a norm or the live creation of a subject for collective enunciation.
Our first example of chorality is paradoxical: it is an instance of collective prayer in an evangelical church. Alongside the steady hubbub of individuals brought together by a single activity (speaking to God), we can also hear people speaking or murmuring on their own. It is a minimal choral form, one in which individuals are separate and together all at once (see also Va y avoir du monde in the section on Affinity).
This collection will distinguish between two main types of chorality: unison, which can be produced in various ways; and distributed forms of speech, where one discourse is divided between several speakers. This distinction overlaps with another: preexisting collective discourses (ritualized or scripted) and those where choral speech spontaneously takes shape around a shared activity.
The most elementary form of chorality is certainly unison, where several individuals say the same thing at the same time. A simple way of producing unison is to request that a group imitate a main speaker setting the tone and example, like the head of the Pétainist youth with his disciples, an officiate with his flock, the leader of a group of fans, a school teacher with his students, or even a protester leading a chain of human amplification. Unison also takes root through custom and repetition, as in this ceremony held by a Californian cult.
Sometimes repetition is produced by training games rather than games of authority, as in this excerpt of Down by Law by Jim Jarmusch or in this wrestling scene. When the lead voice disappears or fades into the choral mass, the choir seems almost emancipated, as in the recitation of poetry or multiplication tables at school, in the “haka” chants of the All Blacks, or of course in certain theatrical performances.
A special case of chorality can be found in the example of a leader calling out to a group who responds with a different utterance. This can be heard at mass, in street protests, at the Guignol, in police shooting instruction sessions, in this witch hunt by the Monty Python.
A whole range of written modes of chorality can be heard in this action by the DurEs à Queer collective in Nantes in 2010: firstly, a form of unison (“Where are my rights”), then a form of speaking out, one by one, based on the same model (“I am a faggot where are my rights? I am a dyke where are my rights?”), followed by a collective response to a call (“What do we want? Equal rights!”).
Chorality can obviously take more subtle forms than unison. One very common mode is the distribution of a single discourse between two speakers. This is the case with comedy duos or troubadours, orators speaking with interpreters, hypnotists working in pairs, or even, more rarely, Jacques Rivette characters pretending to remember erotically shared childhood memories.
Dual composition seems most common in this kind of pre-established distribution (this is the case, incidentally, in prayer as we hear it, with a leader and a group that follows them). On the other hand, in freer, more everyday forms, distribution and ventilation can be shared between a highly variable number of speakers.
These forms of chorality are built on the present moment of speech: several people do the same thing together, each in their own way, while pushing what is being said in a shared direction, that is to say, while sharing an activity. In such cases, we can witness the emergence of a subject for collective enunciation.
These activities can be very diverse:
- learning or rehearsing, like these two-year-old children learning a poem with their parents; similarly, a collective of artists rehearsing a spoken-word choir, or even an actor and director recording a radio jingle (see also Tu me l’écris je peux p’têtre te dire).
- telling a story, like Marguerite Duras and Gérard Depardieu in Le Camion, or this couple recounting a vacation incident.
- observing or describing something, whether in the context of a safari, sports commentary, supervising dance rehearsals, or even in the preparation and simulation of stunts during patrol.
- answering someone else’s question together, like these old companions interviewed by a documentary filmmaker, the four members of Pink Floyd speaking in turn, filmmakers Straub and Huillet speaking in one voice, or these teenagers collectively building a definition of adolescence.
- improvising collective discourse, as in this performance by the W group, or even in this exchange between two babies.
- playing with listing synonyms, as in this excerpt of Masculin/Féminin by Jean-Luc Godard.
- defending or justifying one’s actions before an uncooperative worker, or in the face of a serious accusation that has allowed for the unified emergence of one’s girlfriends.
- thinking together, as in this meeting by the Encyclopédie de la parole.
- simply dining with friends to discuss a dish one may have cooked, or searching for descriptions and translations of ingredients.
Finally, a particularly elaborate representation of chorality which intertwines different speakers, texts, and languages: an excerpt from the play A-Ronne 2 by Luciano Berio.
Catholic liturgy, excerpt of the show La Messe, France Culture, 2011.
Two-years-old children learning a G.M. Hopkins poem, personal recording by Stacy Doris, 2008.
Excerpt of the hypnosis recording Méta-relaxation : créativité face aux problèmes, 1990s.
Sun Ra, excerpt of the recording It's After the End of the World, 1970.
Account of a couple, recording of David Christoffel, Monaco, 2016
Choral Speaking competition, excerpt of a YouTube video, 2010.
Pétainist Youth, excerpt of the film Le Chagrin et la pitié by Marcel Ophuls, 1969.
Excerpt of a shooting lesson, unknown source.
Triumph at the Scala of Milan, 90s.
Scene of the Mountain of Fire and Miracles Ministries evangelists praying, personal recording, 2010.
Scene from an unloading of merchandise, personal recording by Claude Vittiglio, 2003.
Market scene, Place du Jeu de Balle in Brussels, personal recording, 2012
Trade unionists and worker having a conversation, excerpt of the film La reprise du travail aux usines Wonder by Jacques Willemont, 1968.
Workers and Bruno Le Maire, excerpt of a video posted on Youtube, 2019.
Excerpt of Renzo Martens’s film Episode I, 2003.
Pierre-Yves Macé, Grégory Castéra, Esther Salmona, Frédéric Danos, Joris Lacoste, Nicolas Rollet, Nicolas Fourgeaud, excerpt of a meeting held by the Encyclopédie de la parole, 2009.
Excerpt of a sermon in Kinshasa, recording by Manuel Coursin, 2004.
Fabulous Trobadors, excerpt of the recording Era pas de faire, 1992.
Kanak chant, excerpt of the recording Les Voix du monde : anthologie des expressions orales, 1984.
Conversation with friends, excerpt of a personal recording by Nicolas Rollet, 2008.
Raekwon, Ghostface Killah, excerpt of the album Striving for Perfection, 1995.
Excerpt of the film Doulaye, une saison des pluies by Henri-François Imbert, 1999.
Scene at the dentist's, excerpt from a YouTube video, 2010s.
Baby dialogue, YouTube video, 2012.
Scene on the Champs-Elysées before the launching of the iPhone in France, 2007.
Scene from the metro, excerpt of a personal recording posted on Audioboo, 2011.
Scene from a classroom, personal recording by Laurie Bellanca, 2013.
Excerpt of a Brazilian verbal joust, video posted on YouTube, 2000s.
Excerpt of a recital in class, unknown source.
Extract from a report presented by children, Jemidor TV, 2021.
Excerpt from « Gary Hemming, le vagabond des cimes », Une Histoire particulière, France Culture, 2020.
Country Joe Mc Donald, excerpt from a concert at Woodstock, 1969.
Excerpt of a puppet theatre show, YouTube video, 2000s.
Protest against king Gyanendra, Nepal, 2007.
All-Blacks, pre-game ritual, 2010.
Zoo scene, excerpt of a YouTube video, 2011.
Roberto Benigni, Tom Waits, John Lurie, excerpt of the film Down by Law by Jim Jarmusch, 1986.
Polish recipe shared with friends, 2019.
Excerpt of A-Ronne by Luciano Berio, text by Edoardo Sanguineti, 1974.
Excerpt from a soccer commentary, 2000s.
"Musique blanche" from La Patrouille de France, YouTube video, 2013.
Guys playing Guitar Hero, video posted on YouTube, 2012.
Scene from dinner, personal recording by Valérie Louys, 2013.
Excerpt of the performance Le foyer/Le chœur by Gwénaël Morin, Théâtre de l'Élysée (Lyon), 2007.
Briefing before a raid, 2010s.
Excerpt of the film Les Invasions Barbares by Denys Arcand, 2002.
Excerpt of the film Biquefarre by Georges Rouquier, 1974.
Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet, excerpt of the film 6 Bagatelas by Pedro Costa and Thierry Lounas, 2001.
Jacky Bernard and Fernand Raynaud, excerpt of the recording Les secrets du music-hall dévoilés par Jacky Bernard published by Fernand Raynaud, 1965.
Catholic liturgy, excerpt of the show La Messe, France Culture, 2011.
David Wampach, Sabine Macher, Marie-Thérèse Allier, recording by Sabine Macher, 2011.
Conversation with friends, excerpt of a personal recording by Esther Salmona, 2009.
Video about creating a declaration of love, YouTube, 2013.
Excerpt of the documentary La Danse: The Paris Opera Ballet by Frederick Wiseman, 2009.
Patricia Martin, Jean-Marc Four, Pierrick Bolnau, Cyril Grasiani, excerpt of the 7-9am weekend news hour, France Inter, 2014.
Excerpt of figure skating television commentary, 2007.
Scene from Paris at night, personal recording, 2013.
Brigitte Fontaine, excerpt from an interview by Raphaël Misrahi, 1995.
Excerpt of a meeting held during Occupy Wall Street, 2011.
Drawing of the Sorteo de Navidad, Christmas lottery, 2014.
Excerpt of a rehearsal of the Encyclopédie’s choir, personal recording by Olivier Normand, 2010.
Excerpt of a game of cards, Italy, 2011.
Black Lives Matter, slogan against the police, 2020.
Sage Francis, Apathy, excerpt of the mixtape Still Sick... Urine Trouble, 2000.
Slogans in a protest, 2018.
Marguerite Duras and Gérard Depardieu, excerpt of the film Le Camion by Marguerite Duras, 1977.
Action by the DurEs à Queer collective, Nantes, 2010.
'Audiomaton' record, 1960s.
Gabriel, Louise, Sarah and Marc Tchalik, excerpt from Métaclassique #101, 2021.
Scène de devoirs à la maison, 2019
Marlène Jobert, Chantal Goya, Jean-Pierre Léaud, excerpt of the film Masculin, féminin by Jean-Luc Godard, 1966.
Guy Lumbroso, Gwénaël Morin, Grégory Castéra, Adrien Bardi Bienenstock, Joris Lacoste, excerpt of the performance Le Bloc, Bétonsalon (Paris), 2008.
Cheerleading competition (TC Wiliams High School), excerpt of a YouTube video, 2010.
Excerpt of the film Hinterland by Marie Voignier, 2009.
Raffaella Gardon and Antonio, recording by Nicolas Rollet, 2014.
Excerpt of Deborah Scranton’s documentary film The War Tapes, 2006.>
Scene of someone being arrested, field recording posted on Soundcloud, 2015.
Excerpt of the film Monty Python and the Holy Grail by Terry Jones and Terry Gilliam, 1975.
CB radio exchanges between American truck drivers, 2009.
Juliet Berto and Philippe Clévenot, excerpt of the film Céline et Julie vont en bateau by Jacques Rivette, 1974.
Excerpt from Rig-Veda, Mandala 9, Brahamarishi Devarat, 70's.
Roger Waters, David Gilmour, Richard Wright, Nick Mason, excerpt of a Pink Floyd interview on Australian television, 1971.
Méline, excerpt of a horoscope segment on NRJ, 1999.
Excerpt of a game of WarCraft 3, 2014.
History-geography class at the Lycée Français of San Francisco, 2013.
Scene from a safari, excerpt of a YouTube video, 2007.
Excerpt of a dinner with friends, personal recording, 2013.
Chant during a protest in Athens, personal recording, 2012.
Collective prayer by the Church Universal and Triumphant, excerpt of the compilation The Sounds of American Doomsday Cults, v. 14, 1984.
Spiritism session, excerpt from the show “La Mort vivante”, La Série documentaire, France Culture, 2019.
Mountain of Fire and Miracles evangelists, personal recording by Frédéric Danos, 2010.
Countdown in a classroom, video posted on YouTube, 2014.
Maurice Pialat and children, excerpt of the television series La Maison des bois by Maurice Pialat, 1970.
Arnaud Laporte, Marie Audran, Vincent Huguet, excerpt of the show La Dispute, France Culture, 2012.
Excerpt from the radio show Une vie, une oeuvre, France Culture, 2016.
Conversation between friends, personal recording, 2020.
Mathilde Monnier and La Ribot, excerpt of the show Gustavia, 2008.
Protest, excerpt of the website Révoltes FM by Bruno Guiganti.
Wrestling match, excerpt of the show Sur les docks, France Culture, 2009.
Sara Forestier, Sabrina Ouazani, Nanou Benhamou, Aurélie Ganito, excerpt of the film L'Esquive by Abdellatif Kechiche, 2004.
'Audiomaton' record, 1960s.
Excerpt of the show Sur les Docks, France Culture, 2009.
Apparition of a ghost, excerpt of the radio show Boulevard de l'étrange, France Inter, 1984.
Excerpt of the television gameshow Jeopardy, 2012.
Extract from a report presented by children, Jemidor TV, 2021.
Conversation between friends, personal recording, 2020.
Gabriel, Louise, Sarah and Marc Tchalik, excerpt from Métaclassique #101, 2021.
Black Lives Matter, slogan against the police, 2020.
Raffaella Gardon and Antonio, recording by Nicolas Rollet, 2014.
Spiritism session, excerpt from the show “La Mort vivante”, La Série documentaire, France Culture, 2019.
Drawing of the Sorteo de Navidad, Christmas lottery, 2014.
Excerpt from « Gary Hemming, le vagabond des cimes », Une Histoire particulière, France Culture, 2020.
Scene at the dentist's, excerpt from a YouTube video, 2010s.