The Use of Transtextuality in Black Metal

Camille Béra is a PhD student at the
University of Rouen, with particular
interests in Metal studies, Aesthetics
and History. She holds a master's
degree in Musicology and is now
working on her thesis focusing on Black
Metal's aesthetics, history and
techniques. She has participated to
several conferences in France and abroad.
The Use of Transtextuality in Black Metal
According to literary theorist Gérard Genette in his book
Palimpsestes1, intertextuality is one of the five aspects included in
the wider concept known as transtextuality 2. In his work on Popular
Music, musicologist Serge Lacasse suggests enlarging Genette's
model to include recorded music; by analogy with Genette's
transtextual terminology, the term transphonography is formed.
In this paper, focusing on a musicological approach, we will try to
apply in several steps the concept of transphonography to Black
Metal, one of Heavy Metal's extreme fringe 3 genres, showing in the
process how its use modifies the perception of a song, or an album,
by putting the emphasis on the many features of this scene like the
strong national identities, the fascination for ancient times, and –
sometimes - its vivid poetic ambitions.
GENETTE, Gérard, Palimpsestes, Paris, Le Seuil, 1982.
2 LACASSE, Serge, ʻʻLa Musique pop incestueuse : une introduction à la
transphonographieʼʼ, Circuit : musiques contemporaines, vol. 18, n°2, 2008, p. 12.
3 KAHN-HARRIS, Keith, Extreme Metal: Music and Culture on the Edge, Oxford; New
York, Berg, 2007.
1
By choosing examples from the recordings of several bands from
different European scenes and sub-genres, we will attempt to
figure out and expose how Black Metal artists use transtextuality,
the purpose behind the use of transtextuality in relation to these
examples, and also to determine the impacts of its use in the
genre's aesthetics. In order to examine the use of transtextuality
within Black Metal, we will define three categories of transtextual
process. The first step of this reflection will focus on musical
intertextuality or interphonography (using Lacasse's term) including
“every type of allusion or citation to another phonogram” 4; either
allosonic (idealistic re-recordings and alterations of preexistent
musical pieces or fragments) or auto-sonic (physical modifications
using technology5). Secondly we will focus on literal or discursive
intertextuality (considering lyrics only) either borrowed from fiction
or poetry writings, made by allusions or direct citations. Thirdly, we
will study paratextuality or paraphonography, considering samples
of non-musical materials included in the music (two different types
of paraphonographic artifacts: intra-modals (sounds) and extramodals like artworks, booklets6).
BIBLIOGRAPHY
ALLEN, Graham, Intertextuality, New York, Routledge, première
édition 2000, R/2011.
CORRE, Christian, Citation et intertextualité dans les musiques
récentes, thèse de doctorat dirigée par Daniel Charles,
Université Paris 8, 1988.
4ʻʻl’interphonographie
a pour objet tout type de citation, ou d’allusion à un autre
phonogramme ʼʼ. LACASSE, Serge, Circuit : musiques contemporaines, vol. 18, n°2,
2008, op. cit., p. 18.
5 LACASSE, Serge, op. cit., p. 14.
6 Lacasse, Serge, op. cit., p. 20.
FRANGNE, Pierre-Henry, Gérard Genette : La Philosophie de l'art
comme « pratique désespérée », Rennes, Presses Universitaires
de Rennes, 2012.
GENETTE, Gérard, Palimpsestes, Paris, Le Seuil, 1982.
KLEIN, Michael Leslie, Intertextuality in Western Art Music,
Bloomington, Indiana University Press, 2005.
MARC MARTINEZ, Isabelle, « L'Intertextualité sonore et discursive
dans le rap français », Revista Transcultural de Música, n°14,
2014.
LACASSE, Serge, « La Musique pop incestueuse : une introduction à
la transphonographie », Circuit : musiques contemporaines, vol.
18, n°2, 2008, p. 11-16.
ROY, Patrick ; LACASSE, Serge, eds. , Enquêtes sur les phénomènes
musicaux contemporains, Québec, Presses de l'Université de
Laval, 2006.
SPICER, Marc, « Strategic Intertextuality in three of John Lennon's
late Beatles songs », A Music Theorical Matrix : Essays in Honor
of Allen Forte (Part 1), ed. David Carson Berry, Gamut 2/1,
2009, p. 347-375.
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