Musical ekphrasis : composers responding to poetry and painting / by Siglind Bruhn.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Bruhn, Siglind.

Series:

Interplay (Hillsdale, N.Y.) ; no. 2.

Pendragon Press musicological series

Interplay ; no. 2

Penragon [i.e. Pendragon] Press musicological series

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Music and literature.

Art and music.

Program music.

Physical Description:

xxi, 669 pages : illustrations, music ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Hillsdale, NY : Pendragon Press, [2000]

Contents:

Part I Mapping the Territorial Boundaries of Musical Ekphrasis

Music and the Sister Arts 3

Ekphrasis 5

Representation 9

Narration 20

Musical Ekphrasis Versus Program Music 27

Poems or Paintings... and Music? in Music? into Music? 35

The Challenge of Verbal Mediation 49

Variations of Ekphrastic Stance: Once Again, Poems on Paintings 55

Transposition 57

Supplementation 64

Association 67

Interpretation 72

Play 77

Literature and Painting Imitating Music 81

Literature and Painting as Music, or like Music 82

Literature and Painting about Music 94

Part II From Word to Sound: Non-Vocal Music Responds to a Literary Text

Maeterlinck's Death Drama in Two Musical Depictions 107

Death in the Works of Maurice Maeterlinck 107

Tintagiles

Tintagel 110

Maurice Maeterlinck, La mort de Tintagiles 113

Symphonic Responses 117

Bohuslav Martinu, Smrt Tintagilova: Music to Maurice Maeterlinck's Marionette Drama 119

Charles Martin Loffler, La mort de Tintagiles: Poeme dramatique d'apres le drame de M. Maeterlinck 123

Summary: Two Ways of Portraying the Incomprehensible 139

Schoenberg's Musical Representations of Fateful Love Triangles 141

Arnold Schoenberg and His Poets 141

Maurice Maeterlinck's Innocent menage a trois 143

Symbolism and Allusion in Pelleas et Melisande 146

Dehmel's Verklarte Nacht: Anxiety, Reassurance, and Symmetry 149

Frames and Voices in Schoenberg's Verklarte Nacht 159

The Woman's Voice 163

The Man's Voice 167

The Third Voice 170

The Unfolding of the Tragedy in Pelleas und Melisande 172

The Protagonists and Their Threefold 3 + 1 Motifs 178

Motifs of Fate, Jealousy, Love and Death 188

Summary: Schoenberg's Characters and Their Development 193

Elliott Carter's American Narratives 195

A Composer Exploring Complementary View of America 195

Saint-John Perse's Vents (Winds) 200

Structure and Texture, Themes and Voices 206

Elliott Carter's Concerto for Orchestra 212

Summary: Carter's Modes of Transmedializing Perse 219

Part III From Image to Sound: Music on Works of Visual Art

A Twentieth-Century Composer's Quattrocento Triptych 223

Musical Transmedializations of Visual Narratives 223

Respighi's Affinity to Botticelli 224

Botticelli's Primavera 226

Respighi's "Primavera" 231

Botticelli's Adorazione dei Magi 242

Respighi's "Adorazione dei Magi" 247

Botticelli's Nascita di Venere 253

Respighi's "Nascita di Venere" 256

Summary: Respighi's Trittico botticelliano 262

Music for Blessings in Stained Glass 269

Chagall's Stained-Glass Windows 269

John McCabe, The Chagall Windows 286

Jacob Gilboa, The Twelve Jerusalem Chagall Windows 288

Two Musical Readings of Chagall's Visual Interpretations 291

Prelude: Music about Images in Stained Glass 291

Reuben 294

Simeon 300

Levi 306

Judah 309

Zebulun 315

Issachar 319

Dan 324

Gad 329

Asher 335

Naphtali 340

Joseph 345

Benjamin 352

Summary: McCabe's and Gilboa's Musical Responses to Chagall 358

The Twittering Machine: Sound Symbol of Modernity 361

The Artist-Musician 361

Paul Klee and His Zwitschermaschine 362

Peter Maxwell Davies's Joyful, Crank-Assisted Bird Concert 366

Gunther Schuller and the Pitfalls of Mechanized Bird Song 372

Giselher Kelbe's Four Twittering Creatures in Distress 376

Summary: Three Ways of Listening to Birds Hooked to a Crank 380

Part IV The Faun and the Virgin, the Saint and the Reaper: Multi-Tiered Transmedializations

Two Pictorial Cycles and Their Mediated Paths Towards Music 383

Claudel in Basel, Hindemith in Florence: How the Stories Began 383

The Dance of Death

The Dance of the Dead 385

The Early Woodcuts after the Dance of Death at Basel 390

Hans Holbein's Woodcuts 394

The Spirit and Theology of Claudel and Honegger's Danse des morts 399

Reframing Ezekiel: Dialogue (I) and God's Reply (V) 404

The Frolicking of the Dead (II) 414

Laments and Sobs (III, IV) 421

Hope and Affirmation (VI, VII) 425

The Symbolic Usage of Instrumentation and Vocal Textures in La danse des morts 431

Saint Francis of Assisi and the Early Writings about His Life 435

Giotto's Depictions of Saint Francis 438

Hindemith and Massine's Design for the Ballet on Saint Francis 446

Hindemith's Music for the Ballet Nobilissima Visione 452

The Musical Forms and Their Messages 453

The Musical Representation of Characters and Conflicts 456

The Development of Saint Francis's Motifs 462

Summary: Pictorial Cycles Mediated Into Music 466

Two Mallarme Poems and Their Way through Music to Dance 469

The Symbolist Poet 469

The "Scene" from Herodiade: Fragment of a Lyrical Drama 471

Herodiade: The Tale and Its Background 473

The Introduction of the Protagonist 475

Scene (text and prose translation) 476

The Dialogue 482

The Themes 483

The Symbols 488

Herodiade and L'apres-midi d'un faune: Sister Poems 494

The Background of the Faun Story 494

The Tale, Told One Hot Afternoon 495

L'apres-midi d'un faune (text and prose translation) 498

Form and Language 502

Herodiade and L'apres-midi d'un faune: Parallels and Contrasts 505

Poetic Transformations, Further Transmedialized 509

Debussy and Mallarme 512

Debussy's Prelude a l'apres-midi d'un faune 514

Hindemith's Approach to Mallarme 523

Where are the Words? 527

Hindemith's "orchestral recitation," Herodiade 529

From Music to Dance: Martha Graham and Vaslav Nijinsky 543

L'apres-midi d'un faune: Mallarme, Debussy, Nijinsky 548

Summary: Mallarme's Poems and Their Transmedializations 557

Part V Musical Re-Presentations of Visual and Verbal Works of ARt

Depiction and Reference 561

Inherent or Acquired Signification in Musical Devices 561

The Listener's Contribution 563

The Object of Musical Representation: Form and Content 563

Means of Musical Transmedialization 566

Rhythmic Signifiers 566

Pitches, Intervals, and Contours 567

Timbres, Conventional and Circumstantial 569

Structural and Textural Means 571

Allusions and Quotations 572

Variations of Ekphrastic Stance 575

Transposition 575

Supplementation 576

Association 578

Interpretation 580

Playfulness 582

Musical Ekphrasis and the Benefit of the Given Topic 583

Biographical Sketches I The Artists 589

Giotto, Painter of Saint Francis 589

Sandro Botticelli and Neoplatonic Aesthetics 590

Hans Holbein, Portraitist of Death's Clients 591

Marc Chagall: Rediscovering the Bible 592

Paul Klee, Artist and Musician 595

Biographical Sketches II The Poets 597

Stephane Mallarme and Symbolist Poetry 597

Maurice Maeterlinck and Symbolist Drama 599

Paul Claudel and the Renewal of Faith 603

Richard Dehmel and Confident Sensuality 605

Saint-John-Perse and Hart Crane: Interpreting America 606

Biographical Sketches III The Composers 608

C.M.T. Loeffler and B. Martinu: Chronicling a Child's Death 608

Arthur Honegger: Staging the Totentanz 612

Ottorino Respighi: Assembling a Mythological Triptych 614

Elliott Carter: Sonic Quests for America 616

Jacob Gilboa and John McCabe: Translucent Pictures 618

G. Schuller, G. Klebe, and P.M. Davies: Imaging Mechanization 621

Biographical Sketches IV The Choreographers 626

Vaslav Nijinsky: Sublimated Sexual Ecstasy 626

Leonide Massine: Liturgical Ballets 628

Martha Graham: Exploring a Woman's Feelings 631

Primary Sources 633

Secondary Sources 635

On Ekphrasis, Representation, and Program Music 635

Some Collections of Ekphrastic Poetry 637

On the Painters 638

On the Poets 641

On the Composers 644

On the Choreographers 649

On Saint Francis of Assisi 650.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 633-650) and index.

OCLC:

43540876