Lacan addresses the auditory register through the voice, defined as that which, in the margin between sound and silence, embodies the presence of the Other. Among the four objects a of this presence, the voice does not respect the inside/outside of the scopic corporeal structure. The register of sound contains a paradox: on the one hand, like nothing else, it makes the sexual relation exist through the production of an almost mystical collective synchrony. On the other hand, it can lead to the loss of ourselves, in a vertiginous experience of our own dissolution. Perhaps this is why musical traditions are so highly organized, from the well-tempered clavier to the repetitive beats of today's electronic rhythms. Nothing in this organization happens without silence, and it is precisely the silence which the interpretative cut relies on—but instead of being articulated in composition with the sonic fabric, silence will do the traversing. For that purpose, syncopation, offbeats, and dissonances in the sonic experience could bring us closer to the real of interpretation. By intuitively confronting the rhythmic step of axé¹ with the extimate time of samba, is it not possible to anticipate how the game of egoic communion is distinguished from the way the cut can compose the narrative of an analysis?

As for the jouissance continuum, in terms of opaque jouissance, the One of jouissance, highlighted by Jacques-Alain Miller, how can we situate it? We know that this jouissance runs outside the fantasy and its melodies, and that the conclusion of an analysis undergoes an experience that can include a non-being, but no dissolution. I cannot imagine a better musical translation of the iteration of this jouissance than the circular sequences of the Scottish bagpipes. An emphasis is held by it in the air while contingent variations incessantly unfold². What animates the melodic structure is no longer silence. It remains in a non-place: it can either be heard, eclipsing the melody, or left in deafness. It's not very friendly, but won't the sinthome jouissance always be a disturbance, but a more partner-like one?

The last musical illustration, a Brazilian one: couldn't one hear this jouissance in the resfolego³ of the forró accordion,⁴ in which the urgent back-and-forth of the pleat bellows imprints a continuity between the notes, sustaining a presence before the Other, without any rhyme or reason?

[1] Axé is a Brazilian music genre fusing Afro-Carribean marcha, reggae, and Calypso, with influences from Brazilian music such as frevo, forró, and carixada.

[2] See for example, The Scottish Bagpipes Highland Pipes, "Dark Isle," in Famous Scottish Bagpipe Music Volume 2 (2015). Available online at Spotify.

[3] Resfolego is a regional term for the intense, continuous, yet mismatched breathing of the accordion, which can be heard in this example: Tom Zé, "Xiquexique," in Com defeito de fabricação (2007). Available online at Spotify.

[4] Forró refers to a genre, a rhythm, a dance, and na event, in Northeastern Brazil. While certain elements may change, the inclusion of an accordion in the musical arrangements is constant.