This festival of whistles 

Audiences at Royan's next Festival de musique contemporaine, to be held between 29 March and 4 April, are in no danger of being bored. 
Thirty-year-old composer François-Bernard MACHE, who will be premiering his latest work, 'Répliques', on this occasion, has inaugurated a 'participation' formula that is sure to cause a stir in musical circles: between the various movements, the audience will be invited to blow into instruments that will be handed out free of charge at the entrance. 
Variations 

In fact, these will be bird calls, manufactured for 2.50 francs for hunters by the Manufacture d'armes de Saint-Etienne. In François-Bernard Mache's mind, these 'whistles', which were so seductive to game birds, were intended to appeal to an audience that the great modern music had not yet managed to flush out completely. The 'whistles' will have different tones depending on the place occupied in the auditorium by the audience musicians. This will allow for variations and chords that are all the more seductive because the whistle-players will enjoy the greatest freedom in their personal performances. 

The highlight 

Volunteer participants will be placed both in the orchestra, on the balconies, and on stage, among the professionals. They will also be able to show off their little-known talents during a performance of a concerto by Xenakis, written especially for Royan. 
Never before in the history of the concert has anyone dared to take the initiative of requiring the active collaboration of music-lovers after making them pay. And for once, whistling will be an official part of the programme. 

                                           Paris-Presse, 16-17.2.1969

François-Bernard MACHE tried to get the audience to take part in the performance of his work "Répliques. To do this, different types of calls had been distributed in the auditorium. In spite of Charles BRUCK's authority, kindness and dedication, we were convinced neither of the necessity nor of the interest of this kind of experiment: firstly, because the audience at this sixth Festival is one of the most systematically caddish that one can endure; secondly, and above all, because one cannot appreciate in its entirety a musical composition of which one is both the witness and the partial performer. Orchestral musicians have been complaining bitterly for a long enough time about their partial and fragmentary hearing of the compositions they perform, so that listeners should not be subjected to the same inconvenience. The little aviary concert imagined by F.B.MACHE will find it hard to pass for a work of the future. 

                                    Gérard Zwang, La France, 4 April 1969

Thank God things are finally clear! For all the time we've been told that there is no barrier between modern and classical music - that the borborygms and congenital dish-breaking of contemporary art shows are a direct descendant of the great melodies of Bach, Wagner and Debussy - that everything, in short, flows logically, smoothly and seamlessly - the imposture has finally been exposed! God forbid that I should prevent my younger contemporaries from dancing in circles and searching for the art that they believe is appropriate to their time. It's not mine any more, that's all. It's another, inspired by a scientific civilisation. We urgently need to find a name for it, because 'music' is such a misnomer that it betrays even the intentions of the practitioners who perfect it, using slide rules and alchemist's formulas! 
So on Thursday evening, in the hall of the Royan casino, we were given hunting calls, which, depending on where you were placed, enabled you to imitate the red or grey partridge, the sparrow, the thrush and the hare... As for me, I was a sparrow. Scattered around the stage and the hall, the Philharmonic Orchestra supported our calls: a call - calls: why not? The conductor, Charles Bruck, turned towards us and directed our first steps, after explaining the rules of the game and making it clear that the work would not suffer in any way from being betrayed here and there by our inexperience! What followed was a hullabaloo of birds, an indescribable tohu-bohu, warmly applauded by some and hissed at by others. The author, François-Bernard Mache, had been commissioned to produce this hoax by the Ministry of Cultural Affairs. Taxpayers, my brothers, this is where our money goes! 

                         Clarendon (= Bernard Gavoty), Le Figaro, 5.4.1969

After pure music comes music-action, music-¬gesture, music-quotation, music-theatre, music-play. Here audiences and critics are often divided. Some talk of humour, others of the negation of music. If the aim is to express a certain era as it is, is this not to reduce the art of sound to a game of chance? On the one hand, we can see the mephistophelian shadow of John Cage looming, and on the other, the laudable desire to involve the audience in the musical performance, as in a collective rite. But allusion music, happening music and random improvised theatre have never taken us very far....
It is a pity that musicians as gifted as Bussotti or Berio should give in to the vain ease of these childish recreations indulged in by some Americans who have found all too many emulators in Europe...
Finally, the Mache experiment - described by Clarendon - had the disadvantage of being aimed at a public largely made up of connoisseurs. The game should have been offered to a youth centre, or to a meeting of secondary school pupils not yet familiar with music. 

                                        Olivier Alain, Le Figaro, 7.4.1969

Another aspect of participation was François-Bernard Mâche's highly amusing Répliques. The idea was to involve the audience in the orchestra, divided into six groups in which each spectator was given a 'bird call', normally used to summon a red partridge, a sparrow, a thrush, a grey partridge or a hare. It was a joyful concert of well-disciplined and quite poetic noises, fresh music in its native state, open to the outside world, reminiscent of Orpheus charming the animals. 

                                    J.Longchampt, Le Monde, 9.4.1969

For François-Bernard Mâche's "Répliques", small instruments were distributed among the audience to imitate the voices of birds and animals. Charles Bruck, the afternoon's conductor, gave the entrances in eight directions. The result of these singing and vibrating sounds was a kind of music of nature in the forms indicated, to which the orchestra also contributed. To this end, Mâche "consciously wrote a series of particularly simple and broad sequences". By blurring the boundaries between performers and listeners, Mâche wanted to overcome taboos. His main witness was Lautréamont, who said that poetry should be produced by all, not just by one. Mâche replaced the traditional methods of making music with a game, a hunt. He accepts that the interest is more social than musical." This lasted nine minutes and communicated musical sensations that did not provoke boredom or enthusiasm.
 
                 H.H. Stuckenschmidt, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 11.4.69

With the aim of obtaining a collective aspect of the musical work, two experiments were tried: firstly, that of XENAKIS, with the performance of "Nommos Gamma", a sort of terrible cataclysm of sound, brass and percussion in full flight, the orchestra being drowned in an ocean of listeners sitting on the floor of the Casino rotunda, happily accepting to be two fingers away from a cymbal and an ear away from a trombone. What difference can this mix make to the work and its reception by the audience? We haven't found out yet, but in any case, giant cheers greeted the demiurge Xenakis and gave him a triumph. C.Q.F.D . 
The conductor was Charles BRUCK, impassive and masterful in his command of unprecedented rituals. Second experiment: "Répliques" by François-Bernard MACHE. The auditorium was divided into eight sectors; calls imitating the red partridge, the hare, the thrush and the sparrow were distributed; the spectators enjoyed themselves like children; BRUCK began, facing the auditorium, to direct the successive interventions of each group, combined with the orchestra. The result of this joyous hullabaloo is either HAYDN's "Toy Symphony" or the ORFF method. Excellent for children. No artistic interest whatsoever. In any case, these two attempts at participation in a musical work have delighted the public. Were the authors clever, mischievous or serious? For the listener, it was a great moment of good humour. After all, it's easy to forget that alongside the 'ceremonial' of the music, there is the 'game', and why shouldn't this be revived? 

                      Jacques Stehman, Le Soir  (Belgium), 11 April 1969 

At the same concert, some of François-Bernard Mâche's Répliques went beyond the limits of canularesque amateurism. The idea of having the audience participate in the performance of the work, equipped with 'calls' of various kinds, should have been enough to remove it from the festival programme. But here's the thing: it was a commission. So what? Isn't there a reading committee that receives and assesses commissions once they have been composed, and rejects them on the grounds of inadequacy, pretentiousness or absurdity? Isn't it enough to pay for commissions, do we still have to inflict them on listeners of good will? What contemporary music suffers from most is the lack of competence of some enthusiasts, and the lack of courage of some competent ones. 

                           Antoine Goléa, Carrefour des spectacles, 16.4.1969

Another objective, that of François-Bernard Mâche, is to break down the notion of the concert, through the participation of the audience. 
of the concert, through audience participation. 
We are told that "mobile, indeterminate, totally or partially aleatoric works have only [yet!] shattered internal limits [...] The deep, vital need for audience participation that they demonstrate remains a disappointed solicitation because it has not crossed the external limit, the last prohibition that remains to be transgressed, perhaps: that which separates the roles of the audience and the performers. 
"With Répliques, which revives two two-year-old dreams: the domestication of animal voices and the surge of music into life, I am not yet proposing to abolish the musical work: if that notion is obsolete, it will gradually become apparent. What I am proposing is a new meeting place for thought and sound, through the planned involvement of the audience in what we hear... 
The practical realisation of these threatening visions of the future was in fact reduced to the distribution to the audience, divided into six sections, of six species of bird calls normally used to imitate the calls of the red partridge, the grey partridge, the sparrow, the thrush and so on. The performance began "with a trial sequence of calls entirely improvised by the audience, thus demonstrating the imprecision of both the temporal and spatial limits of the work". This was followed by nine sequences in which, at the conductor's signal, a particular group of partridges or sparrows would intervene. Charles Bruck, who conducted with a liveliness reminiscent of de Funès, seemed to enjoy himself immensely, as did the audience, though the orchestra was less so. As for the scope of the work, one is lost in conjecture. 
For a long time now, musical events have enjoyed the active support of the audience. Without going back as far as the responsorial chant of ancient churches, we have some fine examples in the humblest flamenco session. And isn't the most fruitful form of participation to be found in having children sing in chorus, forming small orchestras, as Hindemith did, and as Alfred Loewenguth does in our country? 
There's still the spice of eccentricity, but we've seen better... Let's allow the musicians and the audience to play. Together, if you like. But let's give them places to play. Like many of my colleagues, I'll be among the first to sit on the floor, laugh, sing or bang pots and pans. I reserve the right to do that as long as I'm not impotent. But I will be allowed not to laugh when I hear Bach on the vibraphone, or Malher 'mixed' with Berio.

                         Marc Pincherle, Les Nouvelles Littéraires, 17.4.1969

Intention is no guarantee of quality. The same can be said of F.B.Mache's attempt, which distributes bird hunters' birdcalls to the audience to make a summary and confused orchestra whose link with the group of professional instrumentalists was ensured by the smiling and sceptical care of charles bruck. To put it bluntly...Mache temporarily renounces music...[he] alienates it in a game without scope (especially when it is proposed to a public that is clearly evolved).

                          Olivier Alain, Les Nouvelles Littéraires, 17.4.1969

For his part, François-Bernard MACHE entertains us by using hundreds of hunting calls distributed to the audience (as Walter MARCHETTI did in 1967 in "La caccia"), an audience that played with exemplary discipline following the instructions of conductor Charles BRUCK. Alas, what MACHE wrote for the orchestra is of little value; his "Répliques" pass by effortlessly and without glory.

        Tomas Marco, Diario SP, 17 April 1969 (translated from Spanish)

Original uproar

...Two creations required the audience's cooperation: Alain Louvier's 'Chant des limbes', for orchestra, four solo voices and listeners singing or speaking on stage; and François-Bernard MACHE's 'Répliques', in which the audience took part thanks to the birdcalls they were given. These two works, half-serious, half-smiling, are extreme cases of the search for new forms of communicating music.

              H.H.Stuckenschmidt, Neue Zurcher Zeitung, 17 April 1969

Equipped with birdcalls. 
Will Béjart one day demand audience participation? Composer François-Bernard Mâche has just taken this step. Divided into six groups and equipped with hunting calls (for red partridge, sparrow, thrush, grey partridge and hare), the exuberant Royan audience played 'Répliques' with the Orchestre philharmonique, conducted by Charles Brück. 
As the author himself predicted, the result was less interesting musically than socially: the performance was reminiscent of a rehabilitation session for retarded children. But Lautréamont said that poetry should be made by all, not by one: Mâche has, not without humour, placed himself under his wing. And he prophesies: "Music too, in the future, will be made by everyone when musicians, concerts, minds and society have finally changed. 
   
                             Sylvie de Nussac, L'Express n°927, 14-20.4.1969

For lack of talent, François-Bernard MACHE's "Répliques" are the failure of a good idea, that of integrating the audience, equipped with small instruments, into the sounds of the orchestra.

                                          Tomas Marco, SP, 20 April 1969

To further satisfy the need for the fabulous ROYAN audience to participate, the composer François-Bernard MACHE imagined, during the creation of his "Répliques", distributing tiny instruments to the listeners so that they could take part, with the Orchestre Philharmonique de l'O.R.T.F. and under the direction of maestro Charles BRUCK, in the performance of his score - where everything was planned, right down to the possible errors of interpretation on the part of the audience divided into six sectors with different attributions. 

                          Olga Obry, Le Phare (Belgium) Sunday 20.4.1969

GAME

It had to be invented. To make the audience play, to give them access to the untouchable: the musical performance, at the behest of a conductor. François-Bernard Mâche had the idea of distributing to the audience, divided into sectors, 'bird calls' (red partridge, hare, sparrow) used in hunting, and of getting us to take part in a performance of which we may not have heard the best. Childish instruments, an entertaining game, music in its native state, 'Répliques' made us converse with our father Charles Brück in a spirit of complicity. 

             Martine Cadieu, Les Lettres Françaises n°1279, 16-22.4.1969

François-Bernard MACHE's 'Répliques' included audience participation: thanks to small gadgets imitating bird and animal calls, we can now all proclaim that we played with the Orchestre de l'O.R.T.F. conducted by Charles BRUCK who, with his own instrumentalists operating in various parts of the hall, while the stage was invaded by 'noise-makers', maintained remarkable control in the midst of all this inanity. With more imaginative orchestral interludes, it could conceivably have done useful service in kindergartens.

                                Joan Chissell, The Times, April 1969

Musical happening à la John Cage, or real concert? Here again the barriers were crumbling. The audience is ready to let off steam. François-Bernard Mâche gives them the opportunity to do so in "Répliques", a work that is random, mobile and indeterminate, since it leaves room for musical games by the audience, who are given bird calls, instruments normally used to imitate the cries of different animals, red partridge, sparrow, hare, etc. The composer explains: "The author-participant's margin of responsibility is defined by the characteristics of the instrument entrusted to him, on the one hand, and by the reactions of his thoughts to the sounds he is experiencing, on the other. LAUTRÉAMONT said that poetry should be created by all, not by one: music too, later, when musicians, concerts, minds and society have finally changed. In the meantime, it is certainly possible that the result will be less interesting musically than socially. That's a risk we have to take. After all, making music has nothing to do with making collector's items. 
The attempt at participation (limited and directed by a conductor) was not successful. The MACHE experiment, which is both a demystification of the work of art and a rupture in the relationship between the audience and the performers (similar attempts are currently being made in the visual arts and the theatre), has the merit of reflecting the state of mind of many young contemporary composers. These creators, overwhelmed by the ocean of sounds and the surge of music in life, translate to varying degrees the uncertain chaos that is common to all living beings.

                                    Françoise Seloron, Rock and Folk, May 1969

François-Bernard Mache's approach is the most extreme in terms of audience participation. I am proposing a new meeting place between thought and sound," he says, "through the planned involvement of the audience in what we hear. He goes on to say: 
   "LAUTRÉAMONT said that poetry should be created by all, not by one: music too, later on, when musicians, concerts, minds and society have finally changed. In the meantime, it is certainly possible that the result will be less interesting musically than socially. That's a risk we have to take. After all, making music has nothing to do with producing collective works.
In his work, Répliques, he gave each listener a small instrument: a bird call imitating the cry of an animal. 
The audience was divided into sectors, and the calls were different for each sector. On stage there were other listeners with bird calls and real instrumentalists with real instruments. There was also the conductor, Charles BRUCK, to whom everyone enthusiastically obeyed.  The result? It wasn't ugly to hear, in fact it was relatively orderly and a lot of fun. A good board game: is this the inevitable fate of music?
 That's the most worrying question mark raised by ROYAN. 

                        Monique Verken, Clés pour la musique, May 1969

Leaving aside sonograms and the sounds of the voice, François-Bernard Mâche, in composing "Répliques", the ninth of the ten world premieres presented in Royan, succumbs to the temptation to involve the audience in the composition of his work. "Répliques" was intended to be a dialogue between the orchestra in groups in the hall and the audience equipped with those curious hunting tools used to attract birds, known as bird calls. The result was not as convincing as one might have hoped. There was too much call noise compared to a timid orchestra, but this work should be heard again under different conditions. 
In any case, this is not the solution to the problem of audience participation in the work being performed. Even the best interpretation of "Répliques" will remain a game. In order to work, the "audience-interpreter" would have to be able to measure up to the performers, and the audience would have to be not only music lovers but instrumentalists themselves. A look back to a bygone era when, in court life, the nobles danced and performed the ballet and music themselves, when amateurism meant action and not, as today, submission. 

                          Jean-Rémi Julien, Lettres et Médecins, June 1969

...but this composer is no stranger to music lovers interested in contemporary music. He is a member of the Groupe de recherches musicales. We heard one of his works at the Royan Festival in 1970. The work was conducted by Charles Bruch. The particularity of the score was quite surprising. More than 600 calls in the form of whistles had been distributed to the audience, who were thus actively participating in the concert. The whistles cost 200,000 old francs.)

                                 E.Maby, Provençal-Dimanche 8 février 1976