Ravel’s ‘Trois Poèmes de Stéphane Mallarmé’: A Philosophy of Composition

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emily Kilpatrick

Abstract In a 1927 interview Maurice Ravel declared that Stéphane Mallarmé was ‘not merely the greatest French poet, but the only French poet, since he made the French language, not designed for poetry, poetical’. Around the same period, he twice asserted that in his Trois poèmes de Stéphane Mallarmé (1913) he had sought to ‘transpose’ Mallarmé’s poetry into music. A crucial element of Mallarmé’s allusive poetry is the way it meshes content and form: his chosen forms do not merely contain the sentiment, but make it manifest. How much more complicated is the task of a composer seeking to ‘transpose’ a work from one medium to another, when form and expression are so inextricably intertwined? The present study considers how Ravel’s Mallarmé Poèmes sought to ‘transpose’ imagery and structure, and how tellingly these elements interact with Mallarmé’s reflexive poetic technique. It offers a detailed history and context for his chosen poems, suggesting a rationale for his choices, and outlining the aesthetic ideas that link them as a triptych. Exploring aspects of the songs’ harmonic and proportional design, as well as the symbolic properties of tonality, pitch, and timbre, the study argues that Ravel’s Mallarmé Poèmes realize long-held preoccupations with the nature of form and the compositional process.

Author(s):  
Martin Iddon ◽  
Philip Thomas

The book is a comprehensive examination of John Cage’s seminal Concert for Piano and Orchestra. It places the piece into its many contexts, examining its relationship with Cage’s compositional practice of indeterminacy more generally, the importance of Cage’s teacher, Arnold Schoenberg, on the development of his structural thought, and the impact of Cage’s (mis)understanding of jazz. It discusses, on the basis of Cage’s sketches and manuscripts, the compositional process at play in the piece. It details the circumstances of the piece’s early performances—often described as catastrophes—its recording and promotion, and the part it played in Cage’s (successful) hunt for a publisher. It examines in detail the various ways in which Cage’s pianist of choice, David Tudor, approached the piece, differing according to whether it was to be performed with an orchestra, alongside Cage delivering the lecture, ‘Indeterminacy’, or as a piano solo to accompany Merce Cunningham’s choreography Antic Meet. It demonstrates the ways in which, despite indeterminacy, the instrumental parts of the piece are amenable to analytical interpretation, especially through a method which exposes the way in which those parts form a sort of network of statistical commonality and difference, analysing, too, the pianist’s part, the Solo for Piano, on a similar basis, discussing throughout the practical consequences of Cage’s notations for a performer. It shows the way in which the piece played a central role, first, in the construction of who Cage was and what sort of composer he was within the new musical world but, second, how it came to be an important example for professional philosophers in discussing what the limits of the musical work are.


Author(s):  
Mikael Pettersson

What is it to see something in a picture? Most accounts of pictorial experience—or, to use Richard Wollheim's term, ‘seeing-in’—seek, in various ways, to explain it in terms of how pictures somehow display the looks of things. However, some ‘things’ that we apparently see in pictures do not display any ‘look’. In particular, most pictures depict empty space, but empty space does not seem to display any ‘look’—at least not in the way material objects do. How do we see it in pictures, if we do? This chapter offers an account of pictorial perception of empty space by elaborating on Wollheim's claim that ‘seeing-in’ is permeable to thought. It ends by pointing to the aesthetic relevance of seeing—or not seeing—empty space in pictures.


Author(s):  
Abby S. Waysdorf

What is remix today? No longer a controversy, no longer a buzzword, remix is both everywhere and nowhere in contemporary media. This article examines this situation, looking at what remix now means when it is, for the most part, just an accepted part of the media landscape. I argue that remix should be looked at from an ethnographic point of view, focused on how and why remixes are used. To that end, this article identifies three ways of conceptualizing remix, based on intention rather than content: the aesthetic, communicative, and conceptual forms. It explores the history of (talking about) remix, looking at the tension between seeing remix as a form of art and remix as a mode of ‘talking back’ to the media, and how those tensions can be resolved in looking at the different ways remix originated. Finally, it addresses what ubiquitous remix might mean for the way we think about archival material, and the challenges this brings for archives themselves. In this way, this article updates the study of remix for a time when remix is everywhere.


2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Livia Durac ◽  

Reflecting on human attitude towards reality, together with deciphering the emotional code that accompanies it, has configured - in time – the aesthetic universe, open to human reflection, creation, and evaluation. Aesthetics appears through the way in which consciousness reacts and capitalises upon things in nature and society, or which belong to human subjectivity, including on artistic work, which have an effect on sensitiveness due to their harmony, balance and grandeur. As a fundamental attribute of the human being, creativity is the engine of cultural evolution, meaning the degree of novelty that man brings in his ideas, actions, and creations. Aesthetical values, together with the other types of values, contribute to what society represents and to what it can become, hence motivating human action and creation. Their role is to create a state of mind that encourages the cohesion, cooperation, and mutual understanding of the society. Integrating a chronological succession of the evolution of the concepts that objectify its structure, its aesthetics and creativity, this article stresses the synergetic nature of the two dimensions of human personality, paving the way to beauty, as a form of enchantment of the human spirit.


Author(s):  
Rolando Vazquez ◽  
Miriam Barrera Contreras

RESUMEN Hay que pensar la decolonialidad en relación a las artes. En esta entrevista exploramos cómo las artes decoloniales se diferencian de la estética moderna/colonial. La decolonización de la estética conlleva la liberación de a la aiesthesis, es decir de las formas de relacionarnos con el mundo y de hacer mundo a través de los sentidos. La aiesthesis decolonial se distingue de los principios del arte contemporáneo y en particular de su sujeción a la temporalidad moderna, abriéndonos hacia las temporalidades relacionales. Los artistas decoloniales ejercen una temporalidad distinta que conlleva no sólo una crítica radical al orden de la representación y de la visualidad modernas sino que también nos dan la posibilidad de entender a la decolonialidad cómo un movimiento cargado de esperanza, cargado de la posibilidad de nombrar y vivenciar los mundos interculturales que han sido negados. PALABRAS CLAVE Decolonialidad, tiempo relacional, esperanza, cuerpo, interculturalidad KAI SUTI AESTHESIS ÑAGPAMANDA KAUSAKUNA TUKUIKUNAWA TAPUCHI SUG RUNATA ROLANDO VÁSQUEZ SUTITA SUGLLAPI Kaipi kawachinakumi iska ruraikuna ñugpamanda chasallata kunaurramanda. Kai suti aiesthesis, kawachiku imasami pai kawa kawachimanda ukusinama paipa iuaikunawa. Aiesthesis kame tukuikunamanda sugrigcha.Lsx artistxs kawachinakumi ñugpamanda kausikuna munankuna kawachingapa charrami kausanakunchi parlanakumi ñugpata imasami mana lisinsiaskakuna allí ruraikuna tukuikunamanda. IMA SUTI RIMAI SIMI: Ñugpamanda, parlaikuna sullai, nukanchi kikin, tukuikuna. DECOLONIAL AESTHESIS AND THE RELATIONAL TIMES. INTERVIEW WITH ROLANDO VÁSQUEZ ABSTRACT We have to hink the decoloniality in relation with the arts. This interview explores the difference between the modern/colonial aesthetic and the decolonial arts. The aesthetic decolonization leads to the release of the aesthesis, ergo it relates in every way to the connection and creation of a world through the senses. The decolonial aesthesis is particularly different from the contemporary art principles in the way it grasps the modern temporality consenting the creation of a path toward relational temporalities. The decolonial artists exercise a different temporality that results in not only a radical criticism to the modern representation and visuality but it makes possible to understand the decolonialization as a hopeful movement, full of possibilities for naming and experiencing neglected intercultural worlds. KEYWORDS Decolonialization, relational time, hope, body, interculturality ESTEHÉSIE DÉCOLONIALE ET LE TEMPS RELATIONNELS. ENTRETIEN À ROLANDO VASQUEZ RÉSUMÉ Il faut penser la décolonisation en relation aux arts. Dans cet entretien on explore comment les arts décoloniaux sont différents de l’esthétique moderne-coloniale. La décolonisation de l’esthétique entraîne la libération de l’estehésie, c’est-à-dire, la libération des façons de nous mettre en relation avec le monde et d’en créer un nouveau à travers les sens. L’estehésie décoloniale se différence des principes de l’art contemporain, principalement pour son fixation à la modernité en nous emmenant vers les temporalités relationnelles. Les artistes décoloniaux exercent avec une temporalité qui n’implique pas juste une critique radicale à l’ordre de la représentation et de la vision moderne, mais aussi de la possibilité de comprendre la décolonisation comme un mouvement plein d’espoir, chargé d’une possibilité de nommer et de mettre en relief les interculturalités qu’ont été niées. MOTS-CLEFS Décolonisation, temps relationnels, espoir, corps, interculturalité ESTESIA DESCOLONIAL E O TEMPO RELACIONAL ENTREVISTA A ROLANDO VAZQUEZ RESUMO Temos que pensar a descolonização em relação as artes. Nesta entrevista é explorado como as artes descoloniais são diferentes da estética moderna-colonial. A descolonização da estética conduz a emancipação da estesia, isto é, das formas de relacionamento com o mundo e da fôrma de fazer mundo a partir dos sentidos. A estesia descolonial distinguese dos princípios da arte contemporânea particularmente pela fixação o tempo moderno, abrindo-nos para a temporalidades relacionales. Os artistas descoloniais exercem uma temporalidade diferente que implica não só uma crítica radical à ordem da representação e à visão moderna, mas também à possibilidade de entender a descolonização como um movimento cheio de esperança, carregado da possibilidade de designar e viver os mundos interculturais que foram negados. PALAVRAS CHAVES Descolonização, esperança, tempo relacional, fôrma, intercultural.   Recibido el 20 de enero de 2015 Aceptado el 26 de febrero de 2015


Author(s):  
Feng Zhu

This paper aims to critically introduce the applicability of Foucault’s late work, on the practices of the self, to the scholarship of contemporary computer games. I argue that the gameplay tasks that we set ourselves, and the patterns of action that they produce, can be understood as a form of ‘work on the self’, and that this work is ambivalent between, on the one hand, an aesthetic transformation of the self – as articulated by Foucault in relation to the care or practices of the self – in which we break from the dominant subjectivities imposed upon us, and on the other, a closer tethering of ourselves through our own playful impulses, to a neoliberal subjectivity centred around instrumentally-driven selfimprovement. Game studies’ concern with the effects that computer games have on us stands to gain from an examination of Foucault’s late work for the purposes of analysing and disambiguating between the nature of the transformations at stake. Further, Foucault’s tripartite analysis of ‘power-knowledge-subject’, which might be applied here as ‘game-discourse-player’, foregrounds the imbrication of our gameplay practices – the extent to which they are due to us and the way in which our own volitions make us subject to power, which is particularly pertinent in the domain of play.


2021 ◽  
Vol 66 (4) ◽  
pp. 173-186
Author(s):  
Alí Calderón Farfán ◽  

Future Past. The Evolution of the Concept of Poetry in Octavio Paz. Octavio Paz (1914) is a poet writing in Spanish whose aesthetic ideas have built a vision of relevant poetry for at least three traditions: poetry in French, English and, of course, Spanish. This study will analyze, from the metalinguistic perspective proposed by Reinhart Koselleck, how the concept of “poetry” evolved in the thought of the Mexican Nobel Prize winner. Framed by his tradition, by his space of experience, Octavio Paz wrote works that have been instrumental in understanding and valuing poetry in the twentieth century. From “Poesía de soledad y poesía de communion” (1943) to La otra voz, Poesía y fin de siglo (1990), Paz synthesized the aesthetic ideas of his time in El arco y la lira (1956), rethought the lyrical exercise in “Los signos de rotación” (1956), modified his poetic in the prologue to Poesía en movimiento and made his position explicit in Los hijos del limo and his thoughts on Lévi-Strauss and Marcel Duchamp. By focusing on these texts, as well as on a corpus of conferences, interviews, correspondence and even poetry recitals, this study explores the evolution of poetic thought and the horizon of expectations that the work of the last Spanish-speaking poet who received the Nobel Prize opens for us. Keywords: Octavio Paz, style, poetics, post-utopian time, semantics of concepts


Author(s):  
Lee Bidgood

The author presents bluegrass as a practice of in-betweenness, a way of dealing with authenticity, place, and genre. Scenes from a bluegrass workshop, a Prague pub jam, and an analysis of the the way musicians talk about their musical goals shows that Czech bluegrassers' projects are rooted in reality, nostalgia, imagination, and a mix of all three. The frame of musical pragmatics provides a way to consider these motivating factors, and how they play out socially. The author explains the methodology bi-musicality gained not as the disciple of a master musician, but as a student of the aesthetic, interpersonal, and transnational aspects of Czech bluegrass.


2019 ◽  
pp. 1-14
Author(s):  
Dana Seitler

This book explores the pivotal role that various art forms played in American literary fiction in direct relation to the politics of gender and sexuality at the turn of the century. I track the transverse circulation of aesthetic ideas in fiction expressly concerned with gender and sexuality, and I argue that at stake in fin-de-siècle American writers’ aesthetic turn was not only the theorization of aesthetic experience, but also a fashioning forth of an understanding of aesthetic form in relation to political arguments and debates about available modes of sociability and cultural expression. One of the impulses of this study is to produce what we might think of as a counter-history of the aesthetic in the U.S. context at three (at least) significant and overlapping historical moments. The first is the so-called “first wave” of feminism, usually historicized as organized around the vote and the struggle for economic equality. The second is marked by the emergence of the ontologically interdependent homosexual/heterosexual matrix—expressed in Foucault’s famous revelation that, while the sodomite had been a temporary aberration, at the fin de siècle “the homosexual was now a species,” along with Eve Sedgwick’s claim that the period marks an “endemic crisis in homo-heterosexual definition.”...


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