
Headaches Among the Overtones
Music in Beckett / Beckett in Music
Catherine Laws(Author)
Rodopi (Publisher)
Published on 1. January 2013
Book
Hardback
508 pages
978-90-420-3778-6 (ISBN)
Description
Samuel Beckett produced some of the most powerful writing - some of the funniest but most devastating - of the twentieth century. He described his plays, prose and poetry as 'an unnecessary stain on the silence', but the extraordinary combination of concision and richness in his writing stems from his peculiar sensitivity to the sounds and rhythms of words. Moreover, music forms a part of Beckett's comic aesthetics of failure: it plays a role in his exploration of the possibilities and failures of the imagination, and the ever-failing attempt to forge a sense of self. No wonder, then, that so many composers have taken inspiration from Beckett, setting his words to music or translating into music the dramatic themes or contexts of his work.
Headaches Among the Overtones considers both music in Beckett and Beckett's significance in contemporary music. In doing so, it explores the relationship between words, music and meaning, examining how comparable philosophical concerns and artistic effects appear in literature and music of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.
Headaches Among the Overtones considers both music in Beckett and Beckett's significance in contemporary music. In doing so, it explores the relationship between words, music and meaning, examining how comparable philosophical concerns and artistic effects appear in literature and music of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.
Reviews / Votes
Ce livre aborde un champ capital pour l'oeuvre de Beckett [...] Il serait, certes, preferable de lire cet ouvrage en disposant, tout au long, d'un instrument de musique et d'un appareil pour ecouter des enregistrements, afin de mieux apprecier les exemples cites, mais l'auteur a bien pris soin de rendre ses analyses parfaitement claires sans qu'un tel accompagnement soit indispensable. - Llewellyn Brown, Les Lettres romanesMore details
Series
391
Language
English
Place of publication
Leiden
Netherlands
Publishing group
Brill
Target group
College/higher education
Product notice
sewn/stitched
Cloth over boards
Dimensions
Height: 236 mm
Width: 156 mm
Thickness: 40 mm
Weight
974 gr
ISBN-13
978-90-420-3778-6 (9789042037786)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Content
Acknowledgements
Introduction: Why Beckett and Music?
Part 1: Music in Beckett
Beckett, Proust, and Music
Ideas of Music in Dream of Fair to Middling Women: Beckett and Beethoven 1
Musical Haunting in Beckett's Ghost Trio: Beckett and Beethoven 2
'The fable of one with you in the dark': The Company of Schubert in All That Fall; Beckett and Schubert 1
Vocality and Imagination in Beckett's Nacht und Traeume: Beckett and Schubert 2
Part 2: Beckett in Music
Beckett and Contemporary Music
'Doing it one way and doing it another way': Morton Feldman's Neither
'Together, dogs!': Feldman's Music for Words and Music
Beckett in Music Translation: Embodiment and Subjectivity in Richard Barrett's Ne songe plus a fuir
Step by Step: Beckett and Kurtag
Beckett Sources and Abbreviations
References
Image Credits
Introduction: Why Beckett and Music?
Part 1: Music in Beckett
Beckett, Proust, and Music
Ideas of Music in Dream of Fair to Middling Women: Beckett and Beethoven 1
Musical Haunting in Beckett's Ghost Trio: Beckett and Beethoven 2
'The fable of one with you in the dark': The Company of Schubert in All That Fall; Beckett and Schubert 1
Vocality and Imagination in Beckett's Nacht und Traeume: Beckett and Schubert 2
Part 2: Beckett in Music
Beckett and Contemporary Music
'Doing it one way and doing it another way': Morton Feldman's Neither
'Together, dogs!': Feldman's Music for Words and Music
Beckett in Music Translation: Embodiment and Subjectivity in Richard Barrett's Ne songe plus a fuir
Step by Step: Beckett and Kurtag
Beckett Sources and Abbreviations
References
Image Credits