Proust's Songbook : Songs and Their Uses / Jennifer Rushworth.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Rushworth, Jennifer, 1987- author.

Series:

Sound in history.

Sound in History Series

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Proust, Marcel, 1871-1922--Criticism and interpretation.

Proust, Marcel.

Proust, Marcel, 1871-1922. À la recherche du temps perdu.

Music and literature--France--History--20th century.

Music and literature.

Music in literature.

Songs in literature.

Genre:

Critiques litteraires.

Literary criticism.

Electronic books.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (345 pages)

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania : University of Pennsylvania Press, [2024]

Summary:

"This book analyzes and theorize the presence and role of songs in Marcel Proust's novel AÌ⁰ la recherche du temps perdu (In Search of Lost Time). While Proust and music is a well-established area, much of this work has tended to focus on large-scale forms such as symphonies and opera, on instrumental music, and on imaginary music presented in the novel. In Proust's Songbook, Jennifer Rushworth argues for the centrality of songs and lyrics in Proust's opus, analyzing the ways in which the author inserted songs at key turning points in his novel and how he drew inspiration from contemporary composers and theorists of song. Through close readings of five moments of song in AÌ⁰ la recherche du temps perdu, Rushworth both highlights the songs in Proust's novel through attention to their lyrics, music, composers, and histories. She also interprets these episodes through theoretical reflections on the voice and on songs that draw particularly from the work of Reynaldo Hahn and Roland Barthes. Rushworth argues that songs in Proust's novel are connected and resonate with one another across the different volumes; that song for Proust is a solo, amateur, intimate affair; and that there is a blurred boundary between popular and art song through Proust's juxtapositions of songs and meditation on the notion of "mauvaise musique" (bad music). Song, for Proust, has a special relation to repetition and memory thanks to its typical brevity, and that song itself becomes a mode of resistance in la Recherche, on the part of characters to family and familial expectations, and, in formal terms, to the forward impetus of narrative. Rushworth also defines the songs in Proust's novel as songs of farewell, noting that to sing farewell is also a means to resist the very parting that is being expressed"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Frontmatter

CONTENTS

Introduction

CHAPTER 1 A Schubertian “Adieu” to the Duchesse de Guermantes

CHAPTER 2 Singing in the Bath Albertine and “Bad Music”

CHAPTER 3 Noisy Neighbors Overhearing Massenet’s Manon

CHAPTER 4 Song in Venice A Gondolier Sings “’O Sole Mio”

CHAPTER 5 Saint-Loup’s Schumannian Swansong

Epilogue Song as Metaphor

APPENDIX 1 Texts and Translations of the Pseudo-Schubertian “Adieu”

APPENDIX 2 Weyrauch’s Defense of His Authorship of “Nach Osten!” (1846)

NOTES

BIBLIOGRAPHY

INDEX

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9781512825978

1512825972

OCLC:

1433183592