Drone (musique)

Données clés
Origines stylistiques	Musique expérimentale, musique minimaliste, post-rock, rock expérimental des années 1960
Instruments typiques	Instruments électroniques, guitares, cordes, équipements électroniques de post-production
Popularité	Faible (principalement dans les milieux liés à l'ambient, au heavy metal et à la musique électronique)

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Le drone, drone ambient^[3], ambient drone^[4]^,^[5], ou musique drone^[6]^,^[7], est un genre musical minimaliste^[1] faisant essentiellement usage de bourdons (drones en anglais), utilisant des sons, notes et clusters maintenus ou répétés. Il est typiquement caractérisé par de longues plages musicales présentant peu de variations harmoniques.

Histoire

De la musique rythmée ou très lente contenant des bourdons, appelée « musique drone »^[8]^,^[6], peut être trouvée à de nombreux endroits dans le monde, comme dans la musique jouée avec des cornemuses écossaises ; la musique australienne jouée au didjeridoo, et la musique carnatique et hindoustanie^[9], notamment. La répétition des tons, imitant supposément la cornemuse^[10]^,^[11]^,^[12]^,^[13] est utilisée dans une variété de formes et genres musicaux.

Le genre moderne également appelé drone^[7]^,^[14] (appelée « dronology » par certains ouvrages, labels et disquaires^[15]) est souvent attribué aux artistes proches de la musique underground et du post-rock ou de la musique expérimentale^[2]. Le drone caractérise également les genres minimalistes^[1], dark ambient, drone doom/drone metal, et bruitistes.

Exemples

Années 1950

Yves Klein : Symphonie Monoton-Silence (1947-1948, jouée en 1960), est une œuvre pour orchestre de 40 minutes dont le premier mouvement est un drone invariable de 20 minutes (le second mouvement étant un silence de 20 minutes)^[16] .
La Monte Young : Trio for Strings (1958) qu'il décrit comme « la première œuvre dans l'histoire de la musique complètement composée de longues tonalités maintenues et de silences »^[17] .
Giacinto Scelsi : Quattro pezzi su una nota sola (1959) et de nombreuses œuvres ultérieures, tant par Scelsi que ses disciples et contemporains dans le milieu de la composition spectrale (Iannis Xenakis, Iancu Dumitrescu, etc.).

Années 1960–1970

La Monte Young / Theater of Eternal Music : plusieurs œuvres basées sur des drones, tant en solo qu'avec John Cale, Tony Conrad, Marian Zazeela, Terry Riley, Angus MacLise, Terry Jennings ou Billy Name.
The Red Crayola : Free Form Freak-Out conduisant à Pink Stainless Tale, sur l'album Parable of Arable Land (1967).
Éliane Radigue , compositrice française à la croisée de la musique concrète spectrale et électronique qui fonde son œuvre sur l'utilisation d'abord de larsen puis de drone.
Entre la fin des années 1960 et les années 1980, plusieurs œuvres de compositeurs minimalistes et d'artistes comme Yoshimasa Wada (The Rise and Fall of the Elephantine Serpentine), Tony Conrad et Faust (Outside the Dream Sydicate), Terry Fox (Berlino), Harry Bertoia, Jon Gibson (Two Solo Pieces), Charlemagne Palestine (Four Manifestations on Six Elements), David Hykes (Hearing Solar Winds , Pauline Oliveros (Horse Sings From Cloud), Alvin Lucier (Music on a Long, Thin Wire), Harley Gaber (The Wind Rises in the North), Stuart Dempster (In the Great Abbey of Clement VI) ou Remko Scha (Machine Guitars). Tous utilisent un matériau harmonique lent, maintenu et au timbre dense pour la totalité de plusieurs de leurs œuvres.
Kraftwerk : le premier album du groupe, Kraftwerk (1970), comporte plusieurs exemples de drone : les quatre minutes d'introduction à Stratovarius , le drone d'orgue de la majeure partie de Megaherz , la première moitié de Vom Himmel Hoch .
Klaus Schulze : Irrlicht (1972)^[18] , et dans une moindre mesure Cyborg (1973)^[19] .
Tangerine Dream : Zeit (1972), ainsi que le mélange de drone et de musique planante sur Phaedra (1974).
Fripp et Eno : les 21 minutes de drone ambient de The Heavenly Music Corporation sur (No Pussyfooting) (1973), les 28 minutes de An Index of Metals sur Evening Star (1975).
Miles Davis : les six dernières minutes d'Agharta et Pangaea (1975).
Jon Hassell : Vernal Equinox (1977)

Années 1980–1990

Robert Rich : Sunyata (1982), Trances (1983), Drones (1983)
Steve Roach : Structures from Silence (1984)
Coil : How to Destroy Angels (1984 en EP, 1992 en album), Time Machines (1998), ainsi que de nombreuses pistes sur d'autres albums.
Aphex Twin : certaines plages de Selected Ambient Works Volume II (1994), comme [spots] ou [tassels].
Swans : Soundtracks for the Blind (1996).
Labradford : Prazision (1994).
Gas : tous ses albums depuis Gas (1996) jusqu'à Pop (2000)
Stars of the Lid : la majeure partie des albums du groupe, depuis Music for Nitrous Oxide (1995) et Gravitational Pull vs. the Desire for an Aquatic Life (1996) jusqu'à The Tired Sounds of Stars of the Lid (2001) et Stars of the Lid and Their Refinement of the Decline (2007).
Gescom : Minidisc (1998), dont la moitié des pistes sont du drone ambient.

Années 2000–2010

Radiohead : Treefingers, sur Kid A (2000).
Thomas Köner : notamment l'album Daikan (2002).
Biosphere : la moitié de Shenzhou (2002), Autour de la Lune (2004).
Boards of Canada : Corsair, sur Geogaddi (2002).
Wilco : Less Than You Think, sur A Ghost Is Born (2004).
Godspeed You! Black Emperor : Lambs' Breath sur Asunder, Sweet and Other Distress (2015).
Divers groupes de dark ambient, musique bruitiste, musique post-industrielle et musique d'improvisation, comme Autopsia, Die Krupps, KK Null, Zoviet France, Hototogisu de Matthew Bower, C.C.C.C., Merzbow, Wapstan.
Natural Snow Buildings
Phill Niblock
Leif Elggren (en)
Éliane Radigue
Maeror Tri (en)
Sunn O))) (et son membre fondateur Stephen O'Malley)
Earth
Double Leopards
Windy & Carl (en)
Troum (en)
Mirko Uhlig (de)
House of Low Culture (en)
Growing (en)
Cisfinitum (en)
Lingua Ignota

Bibliographie

[PDF] Levaux, Christophe, Démesures. Une histoire du drone des 1960 à nos jours, Interval(le)s No 7 (2015): Réinventer le rythme / Den Rhythmus neu denken.
De la musique répétitive au drone (1^er mai 2003) par Toma Burvenich - Définition, histoire, liens^[20]
(en) A History of Drone Music (février 2005) - définition, histoire, liens, etc.

Notes et références

↑ ^{a b et c} (en) Cox & Warner 2004, p. 301 (in Thankless Attempts at a Definition of Minimalism de Kyle Gann) : Certainly many of the most famous minimalist pieces relied on a motoric 8th-note beat, although there were also several composers like Young and Niblock interested in drones with no beat at all. [...] Perhaps steady-beat-minimalism is a criterion that could divide the minimalist repertoire into two mutually exclusive bodies of music, pulse-based music versus drone-based music.
↑ ^{a et b} (en) Cox & Warner 2004, p. 359 (Post-Rock de Simon Reynolds) : The Velvets melded folkadelic songcraft with a wall-of-noise aesthetic that was half Phil Spector, half La Monte Young—and thereby invented dronology, a term that loosely describes 50 per cent of today's post-rock activity. (about The Velvet Underground and post-rock).
↑ (en) « Soundtrack for the Aquarium », sur AllMusic (consulté le 25 mai 2015), Representative of the drone ambient side of his work.
↑ (en) Ambient drone est utilisé sur AllMusic dans des biographies comme celle de [https://www.allmusic.com/artist/p169016# Stars of the Lid] (Ambient drone duo Stars of the Lid) ou de [https://www.allmusic.com/artist/p294430# Mathias Grassow] (widely recognized as 'the King of the Ambient Drone)
↑ (en) « Stars of the Lid and their refinement of the decline », sur PopMatters (consulté le 25 mai 2015), experimental no-man’s-lands like ambient drone.
↑ ^{a et b} (en) For information on early and other uses of drones in music around the world, see for example (American Musicological Society, JAMS (Journal of the American Musicological Society), 1959, p. 255 : Remarks such as those on drone effects produced by double pipes with an unequal number of holes provoke thoughts about the mystery of drone music in antiquity and about primitive polyphony.) ou (Barry S. Brook & al., Perspectives in Musicology, W. W. Norton, 1972, (ISBN 0-393-02142-4), page 85 : My third example of the force of tradition concerns another large problem, the persistence of drone music from the Middle Ages to the present day.).
↑ ^{a et b} (en) Early use of "drone music" as a non-ethnic, new or experimental genre can be found such as in 1974 (Michael Nyman, Experimental Music: Cage and Beyond, Studio Vista, 1974, (ISBN 0-02-871200-5), p. 20: [...] LaMonte Young's drone music [...]) or again 1974 (cf. drone-music in the Hitchcock 1974 quote about Riley)
↑ The mystery of drone music in antiquity', Journal of the American Musicological Society 1958, p. 255
↑ (en) A precedent directly cited by La Monte Young, see his quote below (Zuckerman, 2002).
↑ (en) Rosamond E. M. Harding, Origins of Musical Time and Expression, Oxford University Press, 1938, Part 2, Studies in the imitation of musical instruments by other instruments and by voices, page 42-43 : IMITATION OF BAGPIPES: Bagpipes may be called a world-instrument, since they are found in most parts of the world. They are also of considerable antiquity, being known to the ancient Egyptians. [...] There are three characteristics of Bagpipe imitations all three of which may be present at the same time and any one of which is sufficient to characterize Bagpipe influence, if not a direct imitation. The first is the drone, usually placed in the bass, and consisting of one note alone or of two or three notes played together. A drone consisting of two adjacent notes sounded alternately is also typical. Dr. Naylor, in his work An Elizabethan Virginal Book, has drawn attention to the fact that many early English melodies are founded on a drone consisting of two alternating notes, and that the Northumbrian Bagpipe had alternative drones and an arrangement for changing the note of the drones.
↑ George Grove, Stanley Sadie, The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, Macmillan Publishers, 1st ed., 1980 (ISBN 0-333-23111-2), vol. 7 (Fuchs to Gyuzelev), André-Ernest-Modeste Grétry, p. 708 : in L'épreuve villageoise, where the various folk elements - couplet form, simplicity of style, straightforward rhythm, drone bass in imitation of bagpipes - combine to express at once ingenuous coquetry and sincerity.
↑ (en) Leroy Ostransky, Perspectives on Music, Prentice-Hall, 1963, p. 141 : GAVOTTE. A dance consisting of two lively strains in 4/4 time, usually with an upbeat of two quarter-notes. It sometimes alternates with a musette, which is a gavotte over a drone bass, an imitation of bagpipes.
↑ (en) David Wyn Jones, Music in Eighteenth-Century Austria, Cambridge University Press, 2006, (ISBN 0-521-02859-0), p. 117 : Table 5.1 - Pastoral traits in eighteenth-century masses [...] II - Harmony: A) Drones in imitation of bagpipes
↑ (en) "drone music" is also used in The Cambridge History of Twentieth-century Music (cf. Cook & Pople 2004, page 551, about the Theatre of Eternal Music : his drone music [...] Young went on to develop this early drone music into intricate and extended compositions) or on Pitchfork (During that time I wanted my drone music to have as prickly an edge as possible lien).
↑ (en) Dronology est utilisé comme un terme du genre par le disquaire Aquarius Records (qui se proclame comme le premier à avoir utilisé ce terme : voir aquariusrecords.org, epitonic.com, et last.fm).
↑ (en) Gilbert Perlein & Bruno Corà (eds) & al., Yves Klein: Long Live the Immaterial! (An anthological retrospective, catalog of an exhibition held in 2000), New York: Delano Greenidge, 2000, (ISBN 978-0-929445-08-3), page 226 : This symphony, 40 minutes in length (in fact 20 minutes followed by 20 minutes of silence) is constituted of a single 'sound' stretched out, deprived of its attack and end which creates a sensation of vertigo, whirling the sensibility outside time.
↑ (en) Zuckerman, Gabrielle (ed.), An Interview with La Monte Young and Marian Zazeela, American Public Media, juillet 2002, musicmavericks.publicradio.org.
↑ (en) Mueller, Klaus D., « Klaus Schulze: Irrlicht » [WebCite], Official Klaus Schulze Discography, 27 juillet 2010, Early organ drone experiments.
↑ (en) Mueller, Klaus D., « Klaus Schulze: Cyborg » [WebCite], Official Klaus Schulze Discography, www.klaus-schulze.com, 27 juillet 2010, Further organ drone experiments. Heavy stuff.
↑ « De la musique répétitive au drone »

[coxwarner.301-1] {a b et c} (en) Cox & Warner 2004, p. 301 (in Thankless Attempts at a Definition of Minimalism de Kyle Gann) : Certainly many of the most famous minimalist pieces relied on a motoric 8th-note beat, although there were also several composers like Young and Niblock interested in drones with no beat at all. [...] Perhaps steady-beat-minimalism is a criterion that could divide the minimalist repertoire into two mutually exclusive bodies of music, pulse-based music versus drone-based music.

[coxwarner.359-2] {a et b} (en) Cox & Warner 2004, p. 359 (Post-Rock de Simon Reynolds) : The Velvets melded folkadelic songcraft with a wall-of-noise aesthetic that was half Phil Spector, half La Monte Young—and thereby invented dronology, a term that loosely describes 50 per cent of today's post-rock activity. (about The Velvet Underground and post-rock).

[3] (en) « Soundtrack for the Aquarium », sur AllMusic (consulté le 25 mai 2015), Representative of the drone ambient side of his work.

[4] (en) Ambient drone est utilisé sur AllMusic dans des biographies comme celle de [https://www.allmusic.com/artist/p169016# Stars of the Lid] (Ambient drone duo Stars of the Lid) ou de [https://www.allmusic.com/artist/p294430# Mathias Grassow] (widely recognized as 'the King of the Ambient Drone)

[5] (en) « Stars of the Lid and their refinement of the decline », sur PopMatters (consulté le 25 mai 2015), experimental no-man’s-lands like ambient drone.

[droneold-6] {a et b} (en) For information on early and other uses of drones in music around the world, see for example (American Musicological Society, JAMS (Journal of the American Musicological Society), 1959, p. 255 : Remarks such as those on drone effects produced by double pipes with an unequal number of holes provoke thoughts about the mystery of drone music in antiquity and about primitive polyphony.) ou (Barry S. Brook & al., Perspectives in Musicology, W. W. Norton, 1972, (ISBN 0-393-02142-4), page 85 : My third example of the force of tradition concerns another large problem, the persistence of drone music from the Middle Ages to the present day.).

[dronenew-7] {a et b} (en) Early use of "drone music" as a non-ethnic, new or experimental genre can be found such as in 1974 (Michael Nyman, Experimental Music: Cage and Beyond, Studio Vista, 1974, (ISBN 0-02-871200-5), p. 20: [...] LaMonte Young's drone music [...]) or again 1974 (cf. drone-music in the Hitchcock 1974 quote about Riley)

[8] The mystery of drone music in antiquity', Journal of the American Musicological Society 1958, p. 255

[9] (en) A precedent directly cited by La Monte Young, see his quote below (Zuckerman, 2002).

[10] (en) Rosamond E. M. Harding, Origins of Musical Time and Expression, Oxford University Press, 1938, Part 2, Studies in the imitation of musical instruments by other instruments and by voices, page 42-43 : IMITATION OF BAGPIPES: Bagpipes may be called a world-instrument, since they are found in most parts of the world. They are also of considerable antiquity, being known to the ancient Egyptians. [...] There are three characteristics of Bagpipe imitations all three of which may be present at the same time and any one of which is sufficient to characterize Bagpipe influence, if not a direct imitation. The first is the drone, usually placed in the bass, and consisting of one note alone or of two or three notes played together. A drone consisting of two adjacent notes sounded alternately is also typical. Dr. Naylor, in his work An Elizabethan Virginal Book, has drawn attention to the fact that many early English melodies are founded on a drone consisting of two alternating notes, and that the Northumbrian Bagpipe had alternative drones and an arrangement for changing the note of the drones.

[11] George Grove, Stanley Sadie, The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, Macmillan Publishers, 1st ed., 1980 (ISBN 0-333-23111-2), vol. 7 (Fuchs to Gyuzelev), André-Ernest-Modeste Grétry, p. 708 : in L'épreuve villageoise, where the various folk elements - couplet form, simplicity of style, straightforward rhythm, drone bass in imitation of bagpipes - combine to express at once ingenuous coquetry and sincerity.

[12] (en) Leroy Ostransky, Perspectives on Music, Prentice-Hall, 1963, p. 141 : GAVOTTE. A dance consisting of two lively strains in 4/4 time, usually with an upbeat of two quarter-notes. It sometimes alternates with a musette, which is a gavotte over a drone bass, an imitation of bagpipes.

[13] (en) David Wyn Jones, Music in Eighteenth-Century Austria, Cambridge University Press, 2006, (ISBN 0-521-02859-0), p. 117 : Table 5.1 - Pastoral traits in eighteenth-century masses [...] II - Harmony: A) Drones in imitation of bagpipes

[14] (en) "drone music" is also used in The Cambridge History of Twentieth-century Music (cf. Cook & Pople 2004, page 551, about the Theatre of Eternal Music : his drone music [...] Young went on to develop this early drone music into intricate and extended compositions) or on Pitchfork (During that time I wanted my drone music to have as prickly an edge as possible lien).

[15] (en) Dronology est utilisé comme un terme du genre par le disquaire Aquarius Records (qui se proclame comme le premier à avoir utilisé ce terme : voir aquariusrecords.org, epitonic.com, et last.fm).

[16] (en) Gilbert Perlein & Bruno Corà (eds) & al., Yves Klein: Long Live the Immaterial! (An anthological retrospective, catalog of an exhibition held in 2000), New York: Delano Greenidge, 2000, (ISBN 978-0-929445-08-3), page 226 : This symphony, 40 minutes in length (in fact 20 minutes followed by 20 minutes of silence) is constituted of a single 'sound' stretched out, deprived of its attack and end which creates a sensation of vertigo, whirling the sensibility outside time.

[17] (en) Zuckerman, Gabrielle (ed.), An Interview with La Monte Young and Marian Zazeela, American Public Media, juillet 2002, musicmavericks.publicradio.org.

[18] (en) Mueller, Klaus D., « Klaus Schulze: Irrlicht » [WebCite], Official Klaus Schulze Discography, 27 juillet 2010, Early organ drone experiments.

[19] (en) Mueller, Klaus D., « Klaus Schulze: Cyborg » [WebCite], Official Klaus Schulze Discography, www.klaus-schulze.com, 27 juillet 2010, Further organ drone experiments. Heavy stuff.

[20] « De la musique répétitive au drone »

[3]