Vincent Laine-Michaud is a French born professional dance and music performer and teacher, who is currently based in southern Finland. Since he was young, he has been influnced by the Celtic music, dances and languages of both Bretagne and Scotland. He has also studied classical literature and linguistics, both fascinating fields parallel to music. Besides his teaching work, he is preparing a doctoral degree in semiotics of culture and the science of language and music, with the Gaelic harp as the main topic.
Hello Vincent! You were born in southern France, yet are a native speaker of Breton and Gaelic, and you also have Finnish roots. How would you describe your multicultural childhood?
France has this unique position of being a country where several quite different substract languages and cultures exist, and despite the fact that administrative France has always been irrationally cranky about it, it is an incredible richness. Being exposed so young to various languages and the cultural globality that goes with them, I feel the multilingualism and multiculturalism forged some sort of brain plasticity in a field where, I believe, both music and language dwell. I developed the skills to learn the sounds of a language quicker and easier; musically it has naturally honed the ability to catch any melody by ear only, a feat that I really reckon is most necessary in my field of music. It also acted as immunisation against the foolish revisionism of nationalistic narratives, add to this a classical education which helps understanding the genesis of such narratives and there is nothing but derision and contempt left for these. What's left actually is also the deep conviction of our common humanity, a common humanity regularly denied and negated by doxas in our society (often of a religious nature) but which, once encompassed, will give, if not keys, additional grasps in climbing the understanding of a culture other than your own.
You are currently based in south Finland, in a rural area I assume. How did you end up there, and how has life been in this country?
I arrived in Finland after difficult political times in France, when I needed a break and some nordic-like peace. I first landed in Lahti, mostly because I was helped if not assisted by my two dear friends Timo and Ilari, who lived there. I spent several years building up my own company in Lahti, a city which I really deeply liked. Then life and its different aspects brought me to Helsinki first, and then Loviisa area. Life in Finland is very different from place to place and I came to observe various atmospheres, from the cosmopolitan quiet and smiling people of Lahti, passing by the running, indifferent, slightly patronising sphere of our Capital city, to the closed-up boarded-up and prone to “cancel” you, people of Loviisa. This of course is explained by the very fabric of the history-fuelled developement of a municipality and has, I believe, nothing to do with a real deeply ingrained nastiness or virtue; different places are forged by different histories which in turn create some behavioural patterns. One can observe, and understand, one doesn't need to validate nor be impressed!
You have studied and performed professionally with the harp, an instrument which can be traced to ancient Sumeria, and you are also very familiar with the Baltic psaltery, or the boxed zither. Since we are now in Finland, the home of the kantele, a word possibly related to the proto-Indo-European word "to sing, to sound", are you aware of the ancient connections of these two instruments, other than belonging to the greater family of string instruments?
Yes and it is fascinating. Finns often are oblivious to the fact that this instrument is bigger than Finland or any other modern nation. It existed in the area for millenias and still exists in very close forms in our neighbouring countries. I find interesting that you trace kantele being rooted in "sing, chant", as the etymology of the word is somehow obscure. Every country which has this instrument seems to have a word which appears to be a variation of the same original word: kantele, kannel, kokle, kankles, gusli. The linguistic researcher Mario Alinei has developed new interesting insights in the transmission of a morphosemantic and syntagm-paradigm ensembles inside a language throughout its history, this translates as the "theory of continuity", with the Saussurian idea that a word can't come from nothing, it necessarily exists within a network of closely related words, usages, pratices, thus giving to it a morpho-semantic density. Whenever there occurs in a culture, a language isolate, such as the name of the instrument in the various languages, that is to say that this word isn't situated within a corpus of similarly formal words or expression, an older substract (other language that existed before the arrival of the actual ones) can be suspected. This could bespeak of a most ancient origin of the instrument, one that would have precious little to do with the nations which now bear it.
Science acts as a dampener on the otherwise scarry nationalistic thematics sometimes tied to a "national" instrument, and I find this soothing and exciting at the same time: Culture is bigger than nation.
Besides teaching the harp and psaltery, you have been studying and teaching the Celtic dances for over 15 years, as well a the classical ballet, a culture of dance which has influenced many modern forms of dance. Being born during the Italian renaissance, how much has the ballet originally been influenced by so-called European folk dances?
A most interesting question indeed. We traditionnally place the birth of classical ballet within the efforts of Louis the XIVth's crowd of dancing masters, particularly Monsieur Beauchamps (also inventor of a notation of dance, later stolen by Feuillet). The king indeed got an Italian heritage from his mother but the dancing masters went out of their ways to create a form of dance, with its symatries, terminology, classifications, positions and demanding technique, a most classical form of dance indeed. The core step structures of that genesis, still in use in nowadays ballet (pas de bourrée, pas de basque, rigaudon, pas de gavotte, etc.) suppose a popular origine, popular origine often affirmed in historical treaties; rigaudon comes from Dauphiné, are we told, as well as pas de basque comes namesakely, from Basque country and bourrée from Auvergne. It is impossible to arrest with certitude the veracity of such statements; comparisons with popular dances bearing these names nowadays (and collected mostly to the earliest at the end of nineteenth century) cannot be used with serious intend as there definitely is an incompressible time (and cultural) gap and a sheer absence of documents connecting the dots. So which style influenced the other? Which was first, the egg or the hen?
In the globality of dance, I find that this question matters not; In the field of science of culture, (and particularly in the semiotic of culture, an exciting new field developed by the french amazing researcher Francois Rastier) we aren't much interrested in establishing causalities (they often are of such a complex and multifactorial nature that they can't really be explored), we are much more interested in describing the conditions of production.
How similar are for example ancient Celtic and Baltic music? Do you think European folk music of old can be traced to a shared place of origin, such as in the case of many European languages?
Coming back to our core principle of conditions of production, where the global conditions the local, I'd venture to say that similar conditions will bloom similar artforms. It therefore isn't a big surprise that cultures having a lot in common both in their core, institutions and historical enclaving, will blooms musics that are perhaps feeling similar. I however find myself extremely wary of the term “Celtic” and “Baltic”, I indeed feel, that these two labels and the reality they cover is a post-modern one, born from ideologies starting in the nineteenth century. What is Celtic? Celtic is either an archeology term designing antiquity tribes which had a certain cultural relation (and often were at war which each other), or a linguistic one which designs a family of ancient and modern languages. Celtic nowadays however seems to be designing a sort of agglomeration of shady feats and posturings, sometimes bordering on racialism, which put together cultures which don't have a lot in common if anything indeed. It feels terrible for modern people into it to read this, but as someone deep into modern Celtic languages and the cultures tied to it: what is in common between a western Breton paysant and an Irish gaeltacht one? Not much in fact, the languages may bear resemblances, the cultures went their own separate ways since the beginning. And what a boon, it is: more richness, more diversity. Is it a big surprise that “Celtic” “Viking” “Baltic” are often labels brandished by people within a doxa which refuses, often quite violently, human diversity?
I will add as a linguist that the theory of a one and only Indo-European mother language tends to be considered quite obsolete nowadays and only still brandished by the kind of people I just described. As I say before, the causalities, as they can't ever be explicited clearly must be dropped, we therefore can and should concentrate on observing the observable, proto-Indo-European isn't observable, there is no trace, no text, nothing. A "language" without corpus? How could that be? I could say the same of "Celtic", "Baltic", "Viking", as there isn't such a thing as a Celtic text, a Baltic text. We have texts in different Celtic languages and in different Baltic languages. Nuance is of the essence lest we project non existent ideologies into the historical description.
Besides European dance and music, what other cultures and their musical traditions are you mostly fascinated with and influenced by?
I find myself fascinated by the observation of how some cultures bloom a highly codified way to transmit a musical tradition: the Indian raga, the Arabic classical music, the Asian many incredible systems, many of them are so fascinating that one could immerse into them and looses themself. I try to keep focused!
Although we might not yet know everything about the neurological connections of understanding language and music in the human brain, it has been shown musical training correlates with better language learning. Do you think we should increase the influnce of music in the education environments of children?
Totally yes. I however feel that we neeed to change completely the paradigm of how it iscurrently done. I feel we're not out from the naive post-romantic positivism, viewing the classical musical system and its seids such as pop music or classified jazz(ish), as some sort of apex without which a musician can't be a serious musician. Five strings kantele as an educational tool could have been a fantastic tool but I fear that within these post-romantic norms and values, it has not achieved its full potential. Doxa are everywhere and like everywhere in our society nowadays, the musical field is cought in a constant war between the "conservative" revisionist (more like) alt-right ragers and the no less raging and unreasonable deconstructionists who negate and invalidate every structure they can find. This is a stalemate and we need to renew the whole field. Many efforts are made in this direction, only the future will tell. I am confident, humans are resourceful.
Since you are well educated in music, what can you tell me of the state of for example folk music education in Europe today?
A tradition is an array of norms tied to values and that gets transmitted throughout a cycle of tranmission. Certains tradition have a written academical cycle of transmission, but most folk music in Europe had the more ancient medieval patterned oral cycle of transmission: you learned your trade orally, by imitation and emulation of a master. We un-oralled this music and sought to understand, and transmit it via a written classical system, not often adapted to it. In addition to the inadequacy, it also forged a sense of hierarchy: the classical forms are better, more refined, and thus many folk musicians will seek recognition with clipped harmony knowledge, blend with jazz or pop.
To each their own and it's not for me to judge the practices of others, but I am more interrested in reversing the process and come back to the orality.
Alack, this orality, being dead and interrupted, needs a material hermeneutic work, which always will produce results within a spectrum of plausibilities, but one can live totally outside the classical written system base and still be a professional musician.
Have you observed the Finnish educational system in general, compared to for example British or French systems (which you might be familiar with as well)? What are the positives and negatives of these different schooling systems in your opinion?
There is an amusing common belief in France that Finland is some kind of humanistic socialist El Dorado where schooling system is the top of the top. Of course, I know slightly and tragically better now after seven years spent here. I am that kind of person who however will find virtues in every system, naturally this implies there also are flaws, and it is saddening that a synthesis never seems to be quite within the grasp of our politicians. The French system has the French qualities that goes with its flaws: we are organised in a very square and strict way and the passing of knowledge is also very organised and sorted. This can be overwhelming but it also is extremely comfortable and guiding. Knowledge and education are still the goal of French schools and university where I feel (fear?) that in the nordic and Anglo-Saxon spheres money, rentability and getting a job are more the focus, this actually made me choose a French university rather than a Finnish one for my PhD. This commercial orientated course has quite good aspects, I'm sure, but also bad ones, now, let's not make ourselves hateable by developing further.
The language of rhythm, dance and melody is so archaic in our subconsciousness it can certainly bring the human mind to it's very roots. Have you studied the therapeutic and psychedelic effects of dance and music in general?
Studied perhaps is too strong a word, but it is undeniable that this kind of magic thinking is indeed at the core of many cultural feats. I particularly like in older cultures that the magical thinking was kept in a very specific place, where it could freely be experienced and implemented, by each person, to their own level, excellent and safe to oneself and others, means to achieve this necessary dimension to the human psyche without the too often tragic effects of organised, imposed and driven religiosity. Magic and trance and access to a certain idea of the divine available through the repetitive patterns of a monodic music, the rich harmonies of materials, the ever shifting power of the texts, open to many interpretative layers which will adapt to one's own desire and abilities in the direction. My idea of safety and order indeed.
As language defines a huge part of the way we view the world, do you view language and music as extremely positive magical tools, or something to be treated with outmost reservation?
We are bathed in an environment composed of both the physical world and our individual perceptions of it (the welt: world, as Uexküll and Cassirer call it) and the collective consensus inside a culture around these perception (umwelt: under-world), the semiotic zone which contains language and also music. There is no escaping it, no place escapes it, from birth to death and sometimes even beyond, the semiotic zone is everywhere. I find the best course of action, is to smile at the sheer beauty of it, accept and go with the flow. Is there danger? Yes, there is danger in life, nobody ever survived it. All for the best. Should there be fear? Ah! What of?
The pandemic has naturally effected your methods of teaching, which I assume happen mostly online at the moment? How would you like to see your teaching evolve after things can finally return back to somewhat normal in our societies?
As previously stated, I am one to actively seek the excitement of positivity in everything. Yes, everything had to go online, we have had to learn how in two weeks. Honestly? I loved every bit of it: the challenge and the joy of achieving it, and seeing my students happy, working, safe and progressing. The great silver lining in my opinion is that it made this heavy toxic crazy internet and social media technology be useful to humankind for the first time ever: it abolished restrictions and permitted many of us to keep human, keep our activities, keep music and dance alive. I do intend to keep certain lessons online as I got sort of internationnal groups who are cosy together.
The suffocating normality will come back, unchanged, unaltered, with its climate killing fumes, its extremisms in fashion, its lousy raging hatreds and flaws, but we now know we can rerout our technology to create bubbles of singularities. It may or may not help change things.
For someone, young or old, interested in ballet or folk music, yet intimitaded by the esoteric nature of it, what would your advice be to such a person?
Everything you see is seen through your perceptions, make sure it's you doing the liking or the disliking and not an external pressure altering your perceptions. Part from this: go for it, go! Leave when you feel insecure and persist in finding a secure environement, it exists. The only ever constant of humankind is diversity, you'll find the right environmenet for you to practice art.
Thank you very much for this enlightening and extremely interesting interview! What can you tell me about your plans for the year of 2022?
Thank for intelligent insightful questions. 2022 is several wishes: dissertation, defence, joy, articles, joy, concerts, joy, cosiness, joy, collaborations, joy, meetings, joy.
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