Christopher Metcalf: Sumerian Literary Texts in the Schøyen Collection, Volume 1: Literary Sources on Old Babylonian Religion. (Cornell University Studies in Assyriology and Sumerology 38). Bethesda, MD: CDL Press, 2019. 168 S. 22,0 × 28,0 cm. ISBN 978-15-75-06730-8. Preis: $ 99.95.

The literary plays an indispensable role in the creative process and compositional technique of the great jazz composer and orchestra leader Duke Ellington. It is well known that he based a number of his pieces on literary sources and that many of his larger works in particular rely on narrative written by Ellington and/or his collaborator Billy Strayhorn, whether it was programmatic, recitative, or lyric. In all his music, Ellington was concerned with ''telling tales'' in language, not only in sounds - or more precisely, in both: composing in ways that combined words and music. This imperative is evidenced in the pieces Ellington called ''parallels,'' a word he chose in particular to highlight the formal relationship between music and literature. In some, such as the ''Shakespearean Suite'' known as ''Such Sweet Thunder,'' he used various structural approaches and instrumental techniques to achieve portraiture through the interrelationship between the musical and the literary. In other pieces, such as ''My People'' and especially ''Black, Brown and Beige,'' Ellington attempted to integrate literary texts into his music in a manner that is not programmatic. The longer pieces demonstrate that for Ellington's aesthetic, the representation of African American history necessitated a mixed, multimedia form.

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Cornell University Studies in Assyriology and Sumerology

10.1515/9781646020140-012 ◽

2019 ◽

pp. 229-232

Keyword(s):

Cornell University ◽

University Studies

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Visualizing the Provenance of Sumerian Literary Texts

BAF-Online: Proceedings of the Berner Altorientalisches Forum ◽

10.22012/baf.2017.02 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 2 ◽

Author(s):

Sebastian Borkowski

Keyword(s):

Black Market ◽

Literary Texts ◽

Advanced Phase ◽

Old Babylonian

1) DatingOld Babylonian (ca. 1800–1500 B.C.)2) Place namesAbu Salabikh, Babylon, Ḫattuša, Isin, Kiš, Lagas, Larsa, Mari, Me-Turan, Nippur, black market, Sippar, Susa, Tutub, Uruk, Ur3) Text corporaThe Decad: a group of ten literary texts presumably taught at the beginning of the advanced phase of the Old Babylonian scribal curriculum.Sumerian disputation literature: a corpus of 24 Sumerian literary texts classified as debate poems, dialogues, edubba’a-texts, and diatribes.4) Further termsCollective tablet: cuneiform tablet with two or more literary texts; providing evidence for the sequence of these texts in the scribal curriculum.Literary catalogue: cuneiform tablet listing incipits (‚titles’) of Sumerian literary texts; used to reconstruct the Old Babylonian scribal curriculum.

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