The philosopher's touch : Sartre, Nietzsche, and Barthes at the piano

177 Pages·2012·1 MB·English

by  Barthes

Praise for T
h
The PhilosoPher’s Touch e

P
h
The renowned philosopher and prominent
i
l French critic François Noudelmann en-
o
PhilosoPher’s gages the musicality of Jean-Paul sartre,
s
“ Who before François Noudelmann has “a mateur pianist and philosopher Fran- o Friedrich Nietzsche, and roland Barthes,
shone a spotlight on great thinkers en- çois Noudelmann was jolted into action P all of whom were amateur piano players
Touch
amored with the piano? in the lives when he saw a video of sartre at the pia- h and acute lovers of the medium. Though
e
of sartre, Nietzsche, and Barthes, ex- no. like a recurring traumatic flashback, r piano playing was a crucial art for these
ercising at the keyboard for pleasure the sartrean performance touches off a ’ thinkers, their musings on the subject
s
was crucial. Yet their writing about series of reflections on the covert prac- are largely scant, implicit, or discordant
T
music is relatively scant, implicit, or tices of three highly attuned thinkers. The
o with each philosopher’s oeuvre. Noudel-
even, sometimes, discordant with their relation to music, private and protected,
u mann both recovers and integrates these
FraNçois NoudelmaNN is professor work. Breaking boldly with the aca- offers another register by which to read
of philosophy at l’université Paris viii. demism all too common on the French the unsayable in the imposing works of ch sarTre, NieTzsche, perspectives, showing that the manner
in which these philosophers played, the
he has taught at The state university scene of writing, Noudelmann’s The Jean-Paul sartre, Friedrich Nietzsche,
and composers they adored, and the music
of New York, stony Brook, and Johns Philosopher’s Touch reveals an entirely and roland Barthes. ever vying with lan-
they chose reveals uncommon insight
hopkins university, and he has served new dimension of these figures’ writ- guage for sovereignty, music disrupts the
as president of the collège international ing styles and thinking patterns. his implacable habits of linguistic positing N BarThes into their thinking styles and patterns.
de Philosophie and host of France-cul- piano is a harmonics of three disparate and delivers these exemplary writers to o Noudelmann positions the physical
ture’s radio program Philosophy Fridays. philosophers.” the scene of their greatest vulnerability.” ud at the Piano and theoretical practice of music as a
e dimension underpinning and resonating
his publications include Samuel Beckett, —roBerT harveY, —aviTal roNell, l
m with sartre’s, Nietzsche’s, and Barthes’s
Jean-Paul Sartre, and Image et Absence:
professor of French and comparative New York university and the european
a unique philosophical outlook. By read-
Essai Sur le Regard. literatures, state university of Graduate school, author of The Test n
ing their thought against their music, he
n
New York, stony Brook Drive and Finitude’s Score:
introduces new critical formulations and
BriaN J. reillY is visiting assistant pro- Essays for the End of the Millennium François Noudelmann
reorients their trajectories, adding invalu-
fessor of French literature at Johns hop-
able richness to these philosophers’ lived
kins university.
and embodied experiences. The result
Columbia University Press / New York cup.columbia.edu heightens the multiple registers of being
European Perspectives: A Series in Social Thought and Cultural Criticism columBia and the relationship between philosophy
and the senses that informed so much of
cover design by Kelly Blair their work. a careful reader of music,
author photograph by stephane Grangier
a Noudelmann maintains an elegant com-
s.
u. mand of the texts under his gaze and
e
n th appreciates the discursive points of mu-
d i sical and philosophical scholarship they
e
Print involve, especially with regard to recent
research and cutting-edge critique.
The
PHILOSOPHER’S
TOUCH

european perspectives: a series in
social thought and cultural criticism
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european perspectives
A Series in Social Thought and Cultural Criticism
Lawrence D. Kritzman, Editor
European Perspectives presents outstanding books by leading
European thinkers. With both classic and contemporary works,
the series aims to shape the major intellectual controversies of
our day and to facilitate the tasks of historical understanding.
For a complete list of books in the series, see pages 167–168.
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The
PHILOSOPHER’S
TOUCH
SARTRE, NIETZSCHE,
and

BARTHES
at the Piano
François Noudelmann
translated by brian j. reilly

Columbia University Press
New York
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Columbia University Press
Publishers Since 1893
New York Chichester, West Sussex
cup.columbia.edu
Le Toucher des philosophes: Sartre, Nietzsche et Barthes au piano.
Copyright © Editions Gallimard, Paris, 2008
Translation copyright © 2012 Columbia University Press
All rights reserved
Cet ouvrage publié dans le cadre du programme d’aide à la publication
bénéfi cie du soutien du Ministère des Aff aires Etrangères et du Service
Culturel de l’Ambassade de France représenté aux Etats-Unis.
This work received support from the French Ministry of Foreign Aff airs
and the Cultural Services of the French Embassy in the United States
through their publishing assistance program.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Noudelmann, François.
[Toucher des philosophes. English]
The philosopher’s touch : Sartre, Nietzsche, and Barthes at the piano /
François Noudelmann ; translated by Brian J. Reilly.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
isbn 978-0-231-15394-2 (alk. paper) — isbn 978-0-231-52720-0 (ebook)
1. Sartre, Jean-Paul, 1905–1980—Knowledge—Music. 2. Nietzsche,
Friedrich Wilhelm, 1844–1900—Knowledge—Music. 3. Barthes, Roland—
Knowledge—Music. 4. Music and philosophy. I. Title.
ml79.n6813 2012
780'.01—dc23
2011033876

Columbia University Press books are printed on permanent
and durable acid-free paper.
This book is printed on paper with recycled content.
Printed in the United States of America
c 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Designed by Lisa Hamm
References to Internet Web sites (URLs) were accurate at the time of writing.
Neither the author nor Columbia University Press is responsible for URLs
that may have expired or changed since the manuscript was prepared.
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CONTENTS
1 Intuition • 1
2 The Off -Beat Piano • 7
3 Why I Am a Great Pianist • 49
4 The Piano Touches Me • 95
5 Resonances • 145
Acknowledgments • 157
Index • 161

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The
PHILOSOPHER’S
TOUCH

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One
INTUITION
My inspiration for this book came from watching a video of Jean-
Paul Sartre playing the piano. The scene takes place in 1967, a time
when this writer-philosopher is engaged on all fronts of interna-
tional politics. He has been traveling the world lending support
to revolutionary struggles, holding discussions with the likes of
Castro, Tito, Khrushchev, and Nasser. Since 1945 he has become
a man of incendiary declarations. Threatened with death by the
defenders of an A lgérie française , he is also feared by de Gaulle. At
the Russell Tribunal, he had judged the Americans for their crimes,
and now they have him under surveillance. Yet, in the middle of
this militant and adventurous euphoria, Sartre routinely set aside
time for himself at the piano. Not in order to play the notes of the
Internationale. No, instead he would sit down to sight-read scores
by Chopin or Debussy. I was taken aback by this discovery: Having
spent many years studying Sartre’s texts and thought, I was now
hearing another—and wonderfully unique—voice from him. He
expressed so much of himself in the way he played a piece, in his
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