French Symbolist Poetry and the Idea of Music

202 Pages·2006·2.17 MB·English

by  Joseph Acquisto

FRENCH SYMBOLIST POETRY AND
THE IDEA OF MUSIC
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French Symbolist Poetry
and the Idea of Music
JOSEPH ACQUISTO
R
O
UT Routledge
L
E
D Taylor & Francis Group
G
E
LONDON AND NEW YORK
First published 2006 by Ashgate Publishing
Published 2016 by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017, USA
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
Copyright © Joseph Acquisto 2006
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced
or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means,
now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and
recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without
permission in writing from the publishers.
Notice:
Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks,
and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to
infringe.
Joseph Acquisto has asserted his moral right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act,
1988, to be identifi ed as the author of this work.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Acquisto, Joseph
French symbolist poetry and the idea of music
1.Mallarme, Stephane, 1842-1898 – Criticism and interpretation 2.Baudelaire, Charles,
1821-1867 – Criticism and interpretation 3.French poetry – 19th century – History and
criticism 4.French poetry – 20th century – History and criticism 5.Music in literature
6.Symbolism in literature
I.Title
841’.0093578
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Acquisto, Joseph, 1975-
French symbolist poetry and the idea of music / by Joseph Acquisto.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-7546-5641-8 (alk. paper)
1. French poetry—19th century—History and criticism. 2. French poetry—20th cen-
tury—History and criticism. 3. Symbolism (Literary movement)—France. 4. Symbolism in
literature. 5. Music in literature. I. Title.
PQ439.A27 2007
841’.809--dc22
2006005818
ISBN-13: 9780754656418 (hbk)
Contents
Note on Translations vi
Permissions vii
Acknowledgements viii
Introduction 1
1 Baudelaire in Wagner’s Forests, or the Persistence of the Lyric 13
2 Mallarmé and the Spectacle of Musical Poetry 47
3 René Ghil and Stéphane Mallarmé between Crise de Vers and
the Traité du Verbe 81
4 Performing the Ends of Symbolism with Jean Royère 117
Conclusion: Literary History and the Invention of Symbolism 155
Notes 163
Works Cited 185
Index 191
Note on Translations
All translations are my own. Several good English translations of Baudelaire and
Mallarmé’s works are available for readers who may seek effective poetic renderings
of their texts. Since my readings of poems often depend on specifi c connotations
of particular words and expressions, and on linguistic play with uncommon use of
common terms, I have chosen to be as literal as possible in my translations here, even
at the expense of producing sometimes decidedly unpoetic renderings for purposes
of study.
Permissions
Cover image: “Orientation des 66 principaux aspects du motif-organe dans Parsifal”
from La Revue wagnérienne. Copyright Slatkine Reprints. Used by permission.
Portions of Chapter 1 originally appeared in “Uprooting the Lyric: Baudelaire in
Wagner’s Forests” in Nineteenth-Century French Studies, volume 32, numbers 3 & 4
(spring/summer 2004) and are reprinted by permission of the University of Nebraska
Press. © 2004 by the University of Nebraska Press.
Portions of Chapter 3 originally appeared in “Between Stéphane Mallarmé and René
Ghil” in French Forum, volume 29, no. 3 (2004) and are reprinted by permission of
the University of Nebraska Press. © 2005 by French Forum, Inc.
Acknowledgements
I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought, and that gratitude is
happiness doubled by wonder.
Gilbert K. Chesterton
I am grateful to many colleagues and friends who have provided support of many
kinds during the writing of this work. These include Debbie Bates, Elizabeth Emery,
Meaghan Emery, Lawrence Kritzman, Bettina Lerner, Caroline de Mulder, Gayle
Nunley, Vincent Pelletier, Enrique Romaguera, Gretchen Van Slyke, John Waldron,
Janet Whatley, and Catherine Witt.
I extend thanks to Pierre Capretz, Edwin Duval, and Richard Warren for helping
me locate and work with rare recordings of René Ghil and Jean Royère reading their
poems.
Several colleagues read all or parts of the manuscript and provided many helpful
and encouraging suggestions. My thanks go to Louis Auld, R. Howard Bloch, Edwin
Duval, Suzanne Nash, Charles Porter, Jean-Jacques Poucel, and Haun Saussy. Before
her untimely death, Naomi Schor guided the beginnings of my thinking about this
project.
Ann Donahue and Meredith Coeyman have been wise and patient guides through
the publication process, for which I am very grateful.
For more than I could ever say, I owe a great debt of gratitude to Irene Acquisto,
Thomas Acquisto, and my beloved Agnieszka Tworek.
Introduction
In 1908, French-American symbolist poet Francis Vielé-Griffi n related an anecdote
about a group of poets calling themselves the “Symbolistes-Instrumentistes.” They
were headed by René Ghil, who had claimed to establish scientifi c correspondences
among vowels, consonants, colors, orchestral instruments, and emotions. In their
enthusiasm for these newly found “scientifi c” links between music and poetry, these
poets had arranged for a harmonium to be hoisted up to their fourth-fl oor gathering
place.
Les Symbolistes-Instrumentistes furent mis quelques heures plus tard en présence de
l’ « outil » symbolique; mais hélas! aucun d’eux n’en connaissant les secrets sonores,
l’orgue resta perpétuellement muet, renforçant par la seule solennité de sa présence
une atmosphère assez dense, au surplus, de lyrisme verbal, et ce nous est un souvenir
attendrissant et burlesque que cette fi gure heureuse et sympathique du pharmacien
bordelais quand d’un air entendu il se prit à distribuer au petit groupe des poètes ahuris
tels « tableaux » collés sur toile et soigneusement repliés où les industries combinées de
la gravure et de l’enluminure avaient fi guré tous les instruments de musique inventés
par l’humanité depuis la « corne d’auroch » jusqu’au « mégaphone », en passant par
« l’orgue hydrolique ».1
[The Symbolist-Instrumentalists were placed several hours later in the presence of the
symbolic “tool”; but alas, none of them being familiar with the sonorous secrets, the
organ remained perpetually mute, reinforcing by the mere solemnity of its presence an
atmosphere rather dense with verbal lyricism, and this is for us a moving and burlesque
memory of this happy and sympathetic fi gure of the pharmacist from Bordeaux when,
with a knowing air, he began to distribute to the little group of stupefi ed poets such
“paintings” glued on canvas and carefully folded, where the combined industries
of engraving and illumination had represented all musical instruments invented by
humanity from the “auroch horn” through the “megaphone” and including the “hydrolic
organ.”]
The organ silently collecting dust in a corner of the symbolist-instrumentalists’
apartment is an apt symbol of that poetic generation’s relationship to music. Never
before had music played such a large role in a literary movement’s defi nition of
poetry, despite the fact that none of the poets of the symbolist movement was in fact
a musician, unless we consider the amateur music-making of poets such as Catulle
Mendès and Villers de l’Isle-Adam.
This theoretical engagement with music sometimes led symbolist poets to create
a sort of battle for supremacy between the two arts. Albert Mockel, for instance,
addresses this question in a 1914 article: