Musical Symbolism in the Operas of Debussy and Bartok: Trauma, Gender, and the Unfolding of the Unconscious (Music)

Two early twentieth-century operas — Debussy's Pelleas et Melisande (1902) and Bartok's Duke Bluebeard's Castle (1911) — transformed the traditional major/minor scale system into a new musical language. This new language was based almost exclusively on interactions between folk modalities and their more abstract symmetrical transformations. Elliott Antokoletz reveals not only the new musical language of these operas, but also the way in which they share a profound correspondence with the growing symbolist literary movement as reflected in their libretti. In the symbolist literary movement, authors reacted to the realism of nineteenth-century theatre by conveying meaning by suggestion, rather than direct statement. The symbolist conception included a new interest in psychological motivation and consciousness manifested itself in metaphor, ambiguity, and symbol. In this groundbreaking study, Antokoletz links the new musical language of these two operas with this symbolist conception and reveals a direct connection between the Debussy and Bartok operas. He shows how the opposing harmonic extremes serve as a basis for the dramatic polarity between real-life beings and symbols of fate. He also explores how the libretti by Franco-Belgian poet Maurice Maeterlinck ( Pelleas et Melisande ) and his Hungarian disciple Bela Balazs ( Duke Bluebeard's Castle ) transform the internal concept of subconscious motivation into an external one, one in which fate controls human emotions and actions. Using a pioneering approach to theoretical analysis, Antokoletz, explores the new musico-dramatic relations within their larger historical, social psychological, philosophical, and aesthetic contexts. Contents......Page 14 1. Backgrounds and Development: The New Musical Language and Its Correspondence with Psycho-Dramatic Principles of Symbolist Opera......Page 18 2. The New Musical Language......Page 29 3. Trauma, Gender, and the Unfolding of the Unconscious......Page 45 4. Pelléas et Mélisande: Polarity of Characterizations: Human Beings as Real-Life Individuals and Instruments of Fate......Page 70 5. Pelléas et Mélisande: Fate and the Unconscious: Transformational Function of the Dominant Ninth Chord; Symbolism of Sonority......Page 99 6. Pelléas et Mélisande: Musico-Dramatic Turning Point: Intervallic Expansion as Symbol of Dramatic Tension and Change of Mood......Page 132 7. Pelléas et Mélisande: Mélisande as Christ Symbol—Life, Death, and Resurrection—and Motivic Reinterpretations of the Whole-Tone Dyad......Page 162 8. Pelléas et Mélisande: Circuity of Fate and Resolution of Mélisande’s Dissonant Pentatonic–Whole-Tone Conflict......Page 188 9. Duke Bluebeard’s Castle: Psychological Motivation: Symbolic Interaction of Diatonic, Whole-Tone, and Chromatic Extremes......Page 197 10. Duke Bluebeard’s Castle: Toward Character Reversal: Reassignment of Pentatonic and Whole-Tone Spheres......Page 222 11. Duke Bluebeard’s Castle: The Nietzschean Condition and Polarity of Characterizations: Diatonic-Chromatic Extremes......Page 249 12. Duke Bluebeard’s Castle: Final Transformation and Retreat into Eternal Darkness: Synthesis of Pentatonic/Diatonic and Whole-Tone Spheres......Page 263 13. Symbolism and Expressionism in Other Early Twentieth-Century Operas......Page 277 Epilogue......Page 306 Notes......Page 310 Works Cited......Page 346 B......Page 356 E......Page 357 J......Page 358 P......Page 359 S......Page 360 Z......Page 361 "Two early twentieth-century operas - Debussy's Pelleas et Melisande (1902) and Bartok's Duke Bluebeard's Castle (1911) - transformed the traditional major/minor scale system into a new musical language. This new language was based almost exclusively on interactions between folk modalities and their more abstract symmetrical transformations. Elliott Antokoletz reveals not only the new musical language of these operas but also the way in which they share a profound correspondence with the growing symbolist literary movement as reflected in their librettos. In the symbolist literary movement, authors reacted to the realism of nineteenth-century theater by conveying meaning by suggestion, rather than direct statement. The symbolist conception included a new interest in psychological motivation, and consciousness manifested itself in metaphor, ambiguity, and symbol." "In this study, Antokoletz links the new musical language of these two operas with this symbolist conception and reveals a direct connection between the Debussy and Bartok operas. He shows how the opposing harmonic extremes serve as a basis for the dramatic polarity between real-life beings and symbols of fate. He also explores how the librettos by Franco-Belgian poet Maurice Maeterlinck (Pelleas et Melisande) and his Hungarian disciple Bela Balazs (Duke Bluebeard's Castle) transform the internal concept of subconscious motivation into an external one, one in which fate controls human emotions and actions." "Using a pioneering approach to theoretical analysis, Antokoletz explores the new musico-dramatic relations within their larger historical, social, psychological, philosophical, and aesthetic contexts."--BOOK JACKET. Two early twentieth-century operas -- Debussy's Pelleas et Melisande (1902) and Bartok's Duke Bluebeard's Castle (1911) -- transformed the traditional major/minor scale system into a new musical language. This new language was based almost exclusively on interactions between folk modalities and their more abstract symmetrical transformations. Elliott Antokoletz reveals not only the new musical language of these operas, but also the way in which they share a profound correspondence with the growing symbolist literary movement as reflected in their libretti. In the symbolist literary movement, authors reacted to the realism of nineteenth-century theatre by conveying meaning by suggestion, rather than direct statement. The symbolist conception included a new interest in psychological motivation and consciousness manifested itself in metaphor, ambiguity, and symbol. In this groundbreaking study, Antokoletz links the new musical language of these two operas with this symbolist conception and reveals a direct connection between the Debussy and Bartok operas. He shows how the opposing harmonic extremes serve as a basis for the dramatic polarity between real-life beings and symbols of fate. He also explores how the libretti by Franco-Belgian poet Maurice Maeterlinck ( Pelleas et Melisande ) and his Hungarian disciple Bela Balazs ( Duke Bluebeard's Castle ) transform the internal concept of subconscious motivation into an external one, one in which fate controls human emotions and actions. Using a pioneering approach to theoretical analysis, Antokoletz, explores the new musico-dramatic relations within their larger historical, social psychological, philosophical, and aesthetic contexts. Musical Symbolism in the Operas of Debussy and Bartók explores the means by which two early 20th century operas - Debussy's Pelléas et Mélisande (1902) and Bartók's Duke Bluebeard's Castle (1911) - transformed the harmonic structures of the traditional major/minor scale system into a new musical language. It also looks at how this language reflects the psychodramatic symbolism of the Franco-Belgian poet, Maurice Maeterlinck, and his Hungarian disciple, Béla Balázs. These two operas represent the first significant attempts to establish more profound correspondences between the symbolist dramatic conception and the new musical language. Duke Bluebeard's Castle is based almost exclusively on interactions between pentatonic/diatonic folk modalities and their more abstract symmetrical transformations (including whole-tone, octatonic, and other pitch constructions derived from the system of the interval cycles). The opposition of these two harmonic extremes serve as the basis for dramatic polarity between the characters as real-life beings and as instruments of fate. The book also explores the new musico-dramatic relations within their larger historical, social psychological, philosophical, and aesthetic contexts. The authors explore the means by which two early 20th-century operas - Debussy's 'Pelléas et Mélisande' (1902) and Bartók's 'Duke Bluebeard's Castle' (1911) - transformed the harmonic structures of the traditional major/minor scale system into a new musical language By the end of the nineteenth century, many comforting beliefs about what it meant to be human and the accompanying rules and traditions inherent in that notion had been brought into question.