- Marc Jean-Bernard
-
Marc Jean-Bernard (born 14 May 1952)is a French/American Philosopher,Classical musician and musicologist especially dedicated to Aesthetic Theory, Philosophy of Music and Hermeneutics of Culture. His theoretical contributions (written in French, English and Spanish) to Philosophy of Music present the particularity to synthesize hermeneutical, analytical and cognitive methodologies. Marc Jean-Bernard internally associates theoretical investigation to artistic/educative praxis and concrete institutional action.
Contents
Life
Marc Jean-Bernard was born in Paris in a family of intellectuals and lawyers (called Jean-Bernard after the French historian Jean-Bernard Passerieu). He accomplished his philosophical studies at the Sorbonne, Paris 1, where he was strongly influenced by the French philosopher Jacques Bouveresse, and by the French philosopher and musicologist Vladimir Jankélévitch. After working on Hegel's Aesthetics, his Doctoral Studies and Thesis on Wittgenstein was especifically focused on the aesthetical and cultural dimensions of Ludwig Wittgenstein's Philosophical corpus, in relation with Austrian/German culture and Music. Marc Jean-Bernard received his Doctorate in Philosophy at the Sorbonne (Paris 1) for his thesis on Wittgenstein under the direction of Professor Jacques Bouveresse.[1] At the same, time he started an active career as a classical guitarist, conductor and musicologist. He started studying Music formally at a very early age and developed since 1978 a career of classical musician and performed extensively worldwide as a soloist and conductor until 2000. Having been also trained with American composers and virtuosos, his strong interest and competencies in South American Music, Literature and Culture led him to investigate in a Wittgenstein's way -and interprete as well- narrative and mythical dimensions of Latin American Music.His life took on a Latin-American flavour with a move to Colombia, where he combined the teaching of Philosophy of Language at the Public University[2] with the post of Dean of the Music Faculty at a leading Conservatory.[3] Until 2004, Marc Jean-Bernard's professional life was divided between the worlds of philosophy and music. In that year, a third world was added to them with his nomination as ad honorem Consul of France in Puerto Rico.[1] Currently, Professor of Humanities at the University of Puerto Rico, he maintains his interests in the Culture Theory and the Philosophy of the Arts, the subjects of many essays and papers in French, English and Spanish. He also pursues his musical activities, some of which have been recorded on French labels. He is also active in his consular mission, which is particularly involved in the development of European Studies, through bilateral agreements with overseas universities. Dr. Marc Jean-Bernard is the Director of an International Studies Program at the University of Puerto Rico. His current investigations and publications on this subject are dedicated to the dialogue between Europe and America, with a topical emphasis on Latin America from a perspective articulating International Relations and Culture. Dr. Marc Jean-Bernard is preparing a Spanish and English full publication of his Essays.
In 2010, Dr. Jean-Bernard has been elected Dean of the Consular Corps of Puerto Rico.
He has been elected member of the Academy of the Arts and Sciences of Puerto Rico, between other academical and official distinctions.
Philosophy
Marc Jean Bernard's Philosophy could be accurately described as a musico-philosophical investigation of understanding and interpreting, following the tradition of thinkers such as Merleau-Ponty, Wittgenstein, Ernst Bloch, Adorno and Jankélévitch. Such a philosophical perspective assume -after Schopenhauer, Nietzsche and Wittgenstein-, that the blurring of the original unity between Philosophy and Music has to be rethought and overcome. This assumption, equally relevant for the Indo- Iranian, Japanese and Chinese cosmologies, is grounded, in western culture, on the constructive acknowledgment of the internal relation between the general theory of Lógos, and the theory of αρμονια for which the concept of musiké is one of the major dimensions. This theoretical and dialogical perspective, with its stress on the relevance of cultural hermeneutics, aesthetics and musical thinking for the problematic of unity and diversity in culture(s), entail several methodological demands. These tasks can be equally formulated from a phenomenological, hermeneutical, or grammatical point of view. This open hermeneuticas is focused by Marc Jean-Bernard on both practical and theoretical dimensions:
Epistemic Perspective
The Greek locution Dialegein synthesizes a theoretic set of axiological investigations, corresponding to a unified epistemic methodology which embraces Cultural Hermeneutics, specifically Aesthetics and Ethics. His construction of ethical and aesthetical responsibility stands as a philosophical cantus firmus for the understanding of cultural polyphony. Intentionality and Cognition Firstly, Marc Jean-Bernard seeks to provide a philosophical account of cognitive sciences in the field of culture. The extension of research in Philosophy of Mind and Continental Philosophy assigns a theoretical imperative to ethical and cultural investigations, in order to grammatically fix the amphibology of explanation. In contrast to the anti-functionalism and anti- physicalism of phenomenology and hermeneutics, his research on intentionality and subjectivity induces a deep revision of the dichotomy between the transcendental and analytical accounts of phenomenology. He starts with a clear grammar of the term intentionality, unifying its phenomenological and cognitive meaning. Then, a non reductive perspective on Mind and Psychism examines cognitive intentionality (representational consciousness of cognition) and affective intentionality (non representational consciousness and non affective connaturality), following both the phenomenological description of consciousness and the legacy of Wittgenstein’s investigations on perception, knowledge and psychology.
Aesthetic experience as axiology
In his musical or philosophical essays and papers, he stressed the relevance of values in the aesthetic experience considered as a counterpoint of hermeneutic gestures. This insight on symbolic consciousness and truth-content of art is exemplified throughout two ontologically interconnected main fields: Music and Architecture. Considering non- representational and representational semantics of Music and Architecture, the temporalisation and spatialization gestures implied in design and composition embrace the entire sphere of dwelling in a given world, what we call an aesthetical oikonomia. This connection between temporality and spatiality is exposed through recent examples, where axiological and “immunological” claims of a harmonic world are creatively expressed. These paradigmatic topics, focused on architectural design and musical compositions, are chosen between contemporary works from European, Japanese, North and South American cultures.
Knowledge, Art, and Responsibility
Correspondingly, he crystallizes the claim for dialogue between cognitive and hermeneutics in Art, Ethics and Education. His dialogical perspective entails new methodological demands applied to cultural diversity. Phenomenological, grammatical, and cognitive approaches of today’s Aesthetic Endeavour induce a corresponding insight of the role of affective intentionality in Ethics. He assumes that we are led to a synoptic view of Responsibility, within a non reductive frame. Responsibility, linking Wittgenstein to Levinas, and phenomenological to cognitive descriptions, emphasizes the exigent core of a philosophical telos. This Duty reaffirms Malraux’s meditation in The Twilight of the Absolute, through the infinite epiphany of Autrui.
Selected readings and musical activity
PAROLES ET MUSIQUE DANS LE MONDE HISPANIQUE, coordination de Philippe Reynés et de Bruce Kohler ISBN 2-35260-001-4 21,00 €: 'Herméneutique des structures narratives dans l’écriture musicale Latino-américaine du XX° siècle (Musique symphonique, Musique de Chambre, Opéra, Théâtre Musical, Ballet).'
EL ARCO PRODIGIOSO, Perspectivas de Pablo Casals y su legado en Puerto Rico, Pedro Angel Reina Perez, Editor, Diciembre de 2009, EMS Editors ISBN 978-0-9817992-7-
'Estéticas de Pau Casals: El Arco entre Música y Ética'
REVISTA UMBRAL N.2, abril 2010, pp. 81–108 ojs.uprrp.edu/index.php/umbral ISSN 2151-8386 Universidad de Puerto Rico,Rec into de Río Piedras
'André Malraux, Europa y los destinos de la cultura mundial'
ENCUENTRO CON EL CARIBE FRANCÉS, Un encuentro entre literatos, historiadores, arqueólogos y antropólogos de Haití, Guadalupe, Martinica y Puerto Rico. Fundación Cultural Educativa Inc- copyright Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña, 2010
""André Malraux et les métamorphoses de l'Imaginaire Antillais""
Magistral Opening Conference dictated and published in Spanish for the ENCUENTRO CON EL CARIBE FRANCÉS, FIRST INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM ON THE FRENCH CARIBBEAN, MARCH, 10-14, 2009 Instituto de Estudios Avanzados de PR y del Caribe, IEA/ Instituto de Cultura de PR
L'EXIL ESPAÑOL DANS LES AMÉRIQUES, Coordination Ernesto Mächler-Tobar ISBN 2-35260-073-1 22.00 €:
""Cantus Firmus d'un exil musico-philosophique: la geste de Pau Casals à Puerto Rico (1955-1973)""
Marc Jean-Bernard's musical career mirror his thinking, which is exposed and published in three languages through multiples essays and conferences to be soon republished in a synthetic way. Echoing Bernard Holland in The New York Times in 1982, Jean Gallois sinthetized the enthusiastic reception of his concerts by the public: “ C’est splendide; oyez, oyez bonnes gens ! Un merveilleux guitariste nous est né”. Marc Jean-Bernard's Recital programs reflect his philosophical conception of music and project his conception of the social mission of the classical performer. Tour recitals and recordings have been always dedicated to the insight of the musical thinking of specific composers. According to this goal, Marc Jean-Bernard's discography is focused on complete works or cycles, fully documented by commentaries. Joaquín RODRIGO L’Oeuvre Complète pour Guitare (2 CD Dante/Lys D 005/6) Fantasia para un Gentilhombre (Dante/Lys 022) Leo BROUWER Works for Solo Guitar (Pierre Vérany/Agone V 0006) Mario CASTELNUOVO-TEDESCO Complete Works for Solo Guitar,Vol.1 ( Dante/Lys ) Heitor VILLA-LOBOS Mélodies pour soprano et Guitare (Mélothèque-MEL 0001) Bachianas Brasileiras N° 5.
References
- http://www.bu.edu/wcp/Papers/Aest/AestJean.htm
- http://www.bu.edu/wcp/MainAest.htm
- http://www.ictal.org/INI/imagenes/2005/ciencia_science_2005/einstein/
- http://www.midline.net/nfp/PDFs/Jean-Bernard.pdf
- http://www.elcultural.es/version_papel/MUSICA/1441/Sus_mejores_grabaciones/
- http://www.amazon.co.uk/Rodrigo-Guitar-Works/dp/B00000G2KM
- http://umbral.uprrp.edu/files/festival_musico_literario.pdf
- http://classical-mp3-35-70.lyricstemple.com/marcjeanber.html
- http://generales.uprrp.edu/Departamentos/huma/curriculum_vitae/curriculum_vitae_bernard.pdf
External links
Categories:- 1952 births
- University of Paris alumni
- French philosophers
- French musicians
- Living people
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
