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Language

Sound and voice

son; voix; bruit; chant; chanter

Son, voix and bruit overlap in auditory contexts but are not interchangeable.

From the book

The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volumes I–II

Joseph Joubert · Diotimos Editions · 2026

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Orientation

At a Glance

  • The wordSon, voix and bruit overlap in auditory contexts but are not interchangeable.
  • In JoubertThe voice containing several voices and the word containing several meanings offer parallel images of beauty.
  • In this editionThe English translation uses noise for bruit in the midway comparison but sound in the musical chiaroscuro passage discussed under Music.
  • A place to beginSeveral voices within one voice parallel several meanings within a word.
English renderings
sound; voice; voices; noise; song; sing

Meaning

Son, voix and bruit overlap in auditory contexts but are not interchangeable. Chant and chanter concern song and singing, with special claims about imagination.

Use in the book

The voice containing several voices and the word containing several meanings offer parallel images of beauty. They do not specify a physical theory of harmonics. In discourse, Joubert argues that meaning largely makes the ear take pleasure; in music the direction is reversed, the ear striking the mind. The singing fragment likewise requires more than fitting words accurately to notes: voice and accents must stir imagination. Sound “in its beauties” can then seem midway between silence and noise. This qualified judgment distinguishes artistic sound without declaring that bruit is always ugly.

Places to read

  1. II, p. 571, entry 6, ¶1Several voices within one voice parallel several meanings within a word.
  2. II, p. 649, entry 5, ¶1Meaning and auditory pleasure act in different directions in discourse and music.
  3. I, p. 259, entry 5, ¶2Singing must stir imagination beyond accurately fitting notes.
  4. I, p. 209, entry 3, ¶1Beautiful sound is tentatively placed between silence and noise.
  5. II, p. 843, entry 3, ¶1Song is called imagination’s natural tone.

Translation in this edition

The English translation uses noise for bruit in the midway comparison but sound in the musical chiaroscuro passage discussed under Music. Neutral sound in II.649 means neither inherently harsh nor soft. Song’s relation to history, fable and cadence remains Joubert’s compressed generic contrast, not a historical account of all oral traditions.

Source note

Beaunier 1938, I, pp. 209, 259; II, pp. 571, 649, 843.