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Although free improvised music (FIM) originated in Europe and the United States in the 1960s, it has come to possess meanings and roles unique to its individual contexts of production in todays transnational scene. By focusing on the Lebanese free improvised music scene which emerged in Beirut in 2000, my study aims to address the gap in scholarship on Lebanese expressive culture, particularly music, as a tool to negotiate identity. My thesis addresses the way FIM in Lebanon allows four musicians of the war generation (Mazen Kerbaj, Sharif Sehnaoui, Bechir Saade, and Raed Yassin) to express their individual identities as well as their complex relationship with conflict. I propose that, in a society still coming to terms with the atrocities of civil war and constant political instability, the practice of FIM may have a role in reflecting conflict, facilitating inter-cultural dialogue, as well as breaking aesthetic, socio-economic, and sectarian barriers.

En s’appuyant principalement sur le travail de Gilbert Simondon (1989) et sur celui de Bernard Stiegler (2010, 2012, 2013), ce mémoire de maîtrise explore la relation entre les notions d’individu et de collectif. D’une part, cette relation est conceptualisée et développée à travers les concepts de transindividuation et d’individuation collective ; et d’autre part, celle-ci est explorée via les théories de l’improvisation libre (free improvised music). S’intéressant aux différentes modalités de cette pratique musicale (Bailey, 1992 ; Saladin, 2002, 2010, 2014 ; Corbett, 2004, 2016 ; Peters, 2009), cette recherche conçoit l’improvisation libre comme une approche radicale permettant d’aborder autrement la relation entre les notions d’individu et de collectif. L’agencement, la confrontation et la négociation des singularités individuelles des musiciens.nes en présence étant au centre de la pratique de l’improvisation libre, la méthodologie mobilisée vise à cerner les dynamiques permettant de saisir la complexité de cette relation. En s’appuyant particulièrement sur la research-from-creation et la creation-as-research (Chapman & Sawchuk, 2012), l’aspect méthodologique de ce mémoire est ancré dans la recherche-création. En ce sens, les principaux matériaux d’analyse ont émergé de l’expérience de séances d’improvisation libre dans laquelle l’immédiateté et l’éphémérité de la création ont été vécues, discutées et ultérieurement analysées à travers les concepts de rythme et de présence propres à la rythmanalyse d’Henri Lefebvre (1980, 1992). / Relying mainly on the work of Gilbert Simondon (1989) and Bernard Stiegler (2010, 2012, 2013), this master’s thesis explores the relation between the notions of individual and collective. On one hand, the relation is conceptualised and developed through the concepts of transindividuation and collective individuation ; and on the other hand, it is explored through free improvisation / free improvised music theories. Looking at the different modalities of that musical practice (Bailey, 1992 ; Saladin, 2002, 2010, 2014 ; Corbett, 2004, 2016 ; Peters, 2009), this research conceives free improvisation as a radical approach to tackle differently the relation between the notions of individual and collective. The assemblage, confrontation and negotiation of individual singularities of musicians being at the centre of free improvisation, the chosen methodology tends to define the dynamics allowing to understand the complexity of that relation. Relying particularly on research-from-creation and creation-as-research (Chapman & Sawchuk, 2012), the methodological aspect of this thesis is anchored in research-creation. In that sense, the main analysis materials have emerged from the experience of free improvisation sessions in which the instantaneity and ephemeral aspect of creation were lived, discussed and subsequently analysed through the concepts of rhythm and presence inherent to Henri Lefebvre’s rhythmanalysis (1980, 1992).