Beckett and Musicality

302 Pages·2014·2.516 MB·English

by  Bailes, Sara Jane, Beckett, Samuel, Till, Nicholas

Beckett and Musicality
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Beckett and Musicality
Edited by
sara Jane Bailes
and
nicholas till
University of Sussex, UK
© sara Jane Bailes and nicholas till 2014
all rights reserved. no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,
recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the publisher.
sara Jane Bailes and nicholas till have asserted their right under the copyright, designs
and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the editors of this work.
Bach musicological font © yo tomita
Published by
ashgate Publishing limited ashgate Publishing company
Wey court east 110 cherry street
union road suite 3-1
Farnham Burlington, Vt 05401-3818
surrey, Gu9 7Pt usa
england
www.ashgate.com
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
a catalogue record for this book is available from the British library
The Library of Congress has cataloged the printed edition as follows:
Beckett and musicality / edited by sara Jane Bailes and nicholas till.
pages cm
includes bibliographical references and index.
isBn 978-1-4724-0963-8 (hardcover) – isBn 978-1-4724-0964-5 (ebook) –
isBn 978-1-4724-0965-2 (ebook) 1. Beckett, samuel, 1906-1989 – criticism and
interpretation. 2. Music and literature. 3. Music in the theater. i. Bailes, sara Jane.
ii. till, nicholas, 1955-
Ml80.B42B43 2014
780.92–dc23
2014015547
isBn 9781472409638 (hbk)
isBn 9781472409645 (ebk – PdF)
isBn 9781472409652 (ebk – ePuB)
V
Contents
List of Figures vii
List of Music Examples ix
Notes on Contributors xi
Acknowledgements xv
Introduction: Beckett and Musicality 1
Sara Jane Bailes and Nicholas Till
1 ‘Shades of Lessing’: Beckett and the Aesthetics of the
Modern Novel 9
Franz Michael Maier
2 Beckett’s Proust, Schopenhauer, and the Musical Art of Pastiche 27
Céline Surprenant
3 Music and Metamusic in Beckett’s Early Plays for Radio 47
Katarzyna Ojrzyńska
4 Tuning In/Tuning Up: The Communicative Efforts of Words and
Music in Samuel Beckett’s Words and Music 63
Brynhildur Boyce
5 Atonality and Eternity: The Musical Language of Comédie 85
David Foster
6 Richard Rijnvos and Rough for Radio I: Towards the Enrichment
of an Impoverished Text 107
Kevin Branigan
7 Articulated Arrhythmia: Samuel Beckett’s Shorter Plays 119
Maria Ristani
8 Describing Arabesques: Beckett and Dance 137
Thomas Mansell
9 Not I for Solo Piano: Beckett’s Text as Music 155
Paul Rhys
vi Contents
10 The Next Ten Minutes: Morton Feldman and Samuel Beckett 171
Matthew Goulish
11 Beckett’s Apertures and Overtures 187
Mary Bryden
12 Ohio Impromptu: Reading Blanchot, Hearing Beckett 199
Sara Jane Bailes
13 FOURSOME 215
Christof Migone
14 Music in Beckett’s Nacht und Träume: Vocality and Imagination 233
Catherine Laws
Select Bibliography 255
Select Discography 273
Index 275
List of Figures
5.1 Still from Samuel Beckett and Marin Karmitz, Comédie, 1966.
35mm film transferred to DVD; 18.43 mins. Courtesy Marin Karmitz. 90
5.2 Still from Samuel Beckett and Marin Karmitz, Comédie, 1966.
35mm film transferred to DVD;18.43 mins. Courtesy Marin Karmitz. 95
9.1 Interpretation of a section of Beckett’s text for Not I 158
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List of Music Examples
9.1 Paul Rhys, Not I, bars 335–6 160
9.2 Paul Rhys, Not I, bar 303 160
9.3 Paul Rhys, Not I, bar 367 160
9.4 Paul Rhys, Not I, bar 31 161
9.5 Paul Rhys, Not I, bars 108–9 162
9.6 The all-interval series 163
9.7 Twelve trichords drawn from the series 163
9.8 Progressions of twelve-note chords 163
9.9 Paul Rhys, Not I, bars 337–40 163
9.10 Harmony for memory flashbacks 165
14.1 Schubert, ‘Nacht und Träume’, melody 247
14.2 Schubert, ‘Nacht und Träume’, bars 21–7 (excerpt used by
Beckett without accompaniment) 248
14.3 Schubert, ‘Nacht und Träume’, bars 15–19 249