Table Of ContentMusic, Text and Translation
Bloomsbury Advances in Translation
Series Editor: Jeremy Munday
Centre for Translation Studies, University of Leeds, UK
Bloomsbury Advances in Translation publishes cutting-edge research in the fields of
translation studies. This field has grown in importance in the modern, globalized
world, with international translation between languages a daily occurrence. Research
into the practices, processes and theory of translation is essential and this series aims
to showcase the best in international academic and professional output.
Other Titles in the Series:
Corpus-Based Translation Studies
Edited by Alet Kruger, Kim Wallach and Jeremy Munday
Global Trends in Translator and Interpreter Training
Edited by Séverine Hubscher-Davidson and Michał Borodo
The Pragmatic Translator
Massimiliano Morini
Quality in Professional Translation
Jo Drugan
Retranslation
Sharon Deane-Cox
Translating the Poetry of the Holocaust
Jean Boase-Beier
Translation, Adaptation and Transformation
Edited by Laurence Raw
Translation and Translation Studies in the Japanese Context
Edited by Nana Sato-Rossberg and Judy Wakabayashi
Translation as Cognitive Activity
Fabio Alves and Amparo Hurtado Albir
Translation, Humour and Literature: Translation and Humour Volume 1
Edited by Delia Chiaro
Translation, Humour and the Media: Translation and Humour Volume 2
Edited by Delia Chiaro
Music, Text and Translation
Edited by
Helen Julia Minors
Bloomsbury Academic
An imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
50 Bedford Square 175 Fifth Avenue
London New York
WC1B 3DP NY 10010
UK USA
www.bloomsbury.com
First published 2013
© Helen Julia Minors and Contributors, 2013
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any
form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or
any information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the
publishers.
Helen Julia Minors has asserted her right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act,
1988, to be identified as Author of this work.
No responsibility for loss caused to any individual or organization acting on or refraining
from action as a result of the material in this publication can be accepted by Bloomsbury
Academic or the author.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN: 978-1-4411-0026-9
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Music, text and translation / edited by Helen Julia Minors.
pages cm. -- (Bloomsbury advances in translation)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-4411-7308-9 (hardcover) -- ISBN 978-1-4411-8927-1
(ebook (epub)) -- ISBN 978-1-4411-0026-9 (ebook (pdf)) 1. Music and language.
2. Translating and interpreting. 3. Libretto--Translating.
4. Songs--Texts--Translating. I. Minors, Helen Julia.
ML3849.M9396 2013
418’.0378--dc23
2012039415
Typeset by Fakenham Prepress Solutions, Fakenham, Norfolk NR21 8NN
Contents
Series Editor’s Preface vii
Notes on Contributors viii
Preface xii
Acknowledgements xv
List of Examples and Tables xvii
List of Figures and Note on the Text xviii
Introduction: Translation in Music Discourse
Helen Julia Minors 1
Part 1 Translating Text to Music
Opera
1 Tales of the Unexpected: Opera as a New Art of Glocalization
Lucile Desblache 9
2 Surtitling Opera: A Surtitler’s Perspective on Making and Breaking the Rules
Judi Palmer 21
3 Surtitling Opera: A Translator’s Perspective
Jacqueline Page 35
4 Assistance or Obstruction: Translated Text in Opera Performances
Kenneth Chalmers 49
Song
5 Art Song in Translation Peter Newmark, completed by Helen Julia Minors 59
6 Purposeful Translating: The Case of Britten’s Vocal Music
Peter Low 69
7 Some Like it Dubbed: Translating Marilyn Monroe
Charlotte Bosseaux 81
vi Contents
Part 2 Cultural and Intersemiotic Translation
Musical Translation
8 Homophonic Translation: Sense and Sound
Jeff Hilson 95
9 Music Translating Visual Arts: Erik Satie’s Sports et Divertissements
Helen Julia Minors 107
10 Translation and John Cage: Music, Text, Art and Schoenberg
Alan Stones 121
11 Music Mediating Sculpture: Avro Pärt’s LamenTate
Debbie Moss 135
Transference and Adaptation of Sense
12 From Realism to Tearjerker and Back: The Songs of Edith Piaf in German
Klaus Kaindl, translated by Liselotte Brodbeck and Jacqueline Page 151
13 Transcription and Analysis as Translation: Perspectives from
Ethnomusicology
Muriel Swijghuisen Reigersberg 163
14 Difficulty in Translation: Grappling with Ligeti’s Musical Metaphors
Mark Shuttleworth 175
15 Making Music Television Accessible to a Hard-of-Hearing Audience
Mark Harrison 187
Bibliography 199
Index 217
Series Editor’s Preface
The aim of this new series is to provide an outlet for advanced research in the broad
interdisciplinary field of translation studies. Consisting of monographs and edited
themed collections of the latest work, it should be of particular interest to academics
and postgraduate students researching in translation studies and related fields, and
also to advanced students studying translation and interpreting modules.
Translation studies has enjoyed huge international growth over recent decades in
tandem with the expansion in both the practice of translation globally and in related
academic programmes. The understanding of the concept of translation itself has
broadened to include not only interlingual but also various forms of intralingual
translation. Specialized branches or sub-disciplines have developed for the study of
interpreting, audio-visual translation, and sign language, among others. Translation
studies has also come to embrace a wide range of types of intercultural encounter
and transfer, interfacing with disciplines as varied as applied linguistics, comparative
literature, computational linguistics, creative writing, cultural studies, gender studies,
philosophy, post-colonial studies, sociology, and so on. Each provides a different and
valid perspective on translation, and each has its place in this series.
This is an exciting time for translation studies, and the new Bloomsbury Advances
in Translation series promises to be an important new plank in the development of
the discipline. As General Editor, I look forward to overseeing the publication of
important new work that will provide insights into all aspects of the field.
Jeremy Munday
General Editor
University of Leeds, UK
Notes on Contributors
Charlotte Bosseaux is Senior Lecturer in Translation Studies at the University of
Edinburgh. Her research focuses on characterization and translation. Her publications
include How Does it Feel? Point of View in Translation (2007). She now analyzes audio-
visual texts with articles on characterization in the American television series Buffy the
Vampire Slayer and its dubbed and subtitled French versions (2008). She is currently
working on a monograph on this topic (forthcoming 2013) She has also worked on
song translation, publishing a chapter in the Oxford University Press Handbook of
Translation Studies (2011).
Liselotte Brodbeck is Senior Lecturer in German and subject leader at the London
Metropolitan University. Her research covers Contemporary German Literature
and Comparative Aspects of Popular Culture. Brodbeck is on the editorial board of
JoSTrans, The Journal of Specialised Translation. She is an active translator.
Kenneth Chalmers is an experienced translator and writer working within the
classical music industry. Currently he is a surtitler at the Royal Opera House. He has
written surtitles, scholarly articles in music and translation, and completed transla-
tions for professional use. He is a trained musician as well as a linguist.
Michael Chanan is a documentary film maker, writer on film and music, and
Professor of film at the University of Roehampton. Chanan is active in a video project
chronicling student demonstrations in Chile, as well as an active presenter on research
in film studies. His films include: No to Profit (2011), The Buzz in Buenos Aires (2010)
and The American Who Electrified Russia (2009). His books include: The Politics
of Documentary (2007) and Musica Practica: The Social Practice of Western from
Gregorian Chant to Postmodernism (1996).
Lucile Desblache is Reader in Translation and Comparative Literature at the University
of Roehampton, where she is the Director of the Centre for Research in Translation
and Transcultural Studies. Her two main areas of research are human–animal repre-
sentation in contemporary literature and aspects of text transfer in music. Lucile is a
singer and holds degrees in music and translation. She is the editor of JoSTrans, The
Journal of Specialised Translation.
Mark Harrison was born and raised in the south-west of England, and left the
University of Leeds with an MA in audio-visual translation. During his career in the
subtitling industry, Mark has worked at a variety of London-based AVT agencies,
Notes on Contributors ix
working on both intra- and inter-lingual subtitling projects. He now works as
Language Operations Manager for MTV International. One of Mark’s areas of interest
whilst at MTV has been to create a consistent and solid subtitling service for hard-of-
hearing music lovers in the UK. Mark has also worked as a visiting lecturer in Spanish
to English audio-visual translation at Imperial College London and the University of
Roehampton.
Jeff Hilson is a contemporary British poet. Recent poetry readings and performances
include: ‘ny poesiy’, at The Poetry Café, London; ‘Crossing the Line’, William IV,
London (September 2010); ‘Desperate for Love’, Kommedia Bar, Brighton (August
2010); ‘Freaklung Barry MacSweeney tribute’, Mordern Tower, Newcastle (August
2010); ‘The Blue Bus’, The Lamb, London (July 2010); ‘The Other Room’, Manchester
(July 2010); ‘1st Brighton Poetry Festival’, University of Sussex, Brighton (April 2010);
‘ExXmas’, Brixton Market, London (January 2010). He has scholarly articles published,
including in the Journal of Irish and British Innovative Poetry (2010), and books,
including his acclaimed Stretchers (2002).
Klaus Kaindl is Associate Professor of Translation Studies at the Centre for
Translation Studies at the University of Vienna. His research interests include
translation theory, multimodal translation and fictional translators in literature and
film. He has published several monographs, including Translatorische Methodik 2
(2007) and Übersetzungswissenschaft im interdisziplinären Dialog: Am Beispiel der
Comicübersetzung (2004), some 60 papers and also co-edited several volumes.
Peter Low is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Languages, Cultures and Linguistics
at the University of Canterbury, Christ Church, New Zealand. Educated in New
Zealand and France, he wrote a thesis on French poetry and has published articles on
French song (for example, in the Journal of Singing) and on translatology (notably in
Target, Babel and Perspectives). Outside of his academic roles, he is a translator and an
occasional pianist.
Helen Julia Minors is a Senior Lecturer in music at Kingston University, where she is
associate director of the Practice Research Unit. Helen is a musicologist with interests
in twentieth-century French music and music–dance relationships. She is published
in Notes (2010), Dance Research (2009), Nineteenth Century Music Review (2007) and
Opera Quarterly (2006). She has written score prefaces on Lili Boulanger and Claude
Debussy for Musikproduktion Jurgen Hoflich. Helen has publications forthcoming
on gesture in music and dance, the operas by Paul Dukas and Claude Debussy, Erik
Satie, and the live composing sign language, Soundpainting. She sits on the National
Association for Music in Higher Education and the Society for Dance Research.
Debbie Moss has degrees in dentistry, fine art and music. She is a musiologist,
acoustic composer and pianist. Her research explores artistic collaborations in France
during the twentieth century, particularly those of Jean Cocteau, with reference to his
