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- Genre: Creative nonfiction
- Genre: Music--France--19th century--History and criticism.
- Creators: Arizona State University
Description
This dissertation is both creative and scholarly, engaging in the technique of "narrative scholarship," an increasingly accepted technique within the field of ecocriticism. The project is framed by my experiences with Spanish and Latino actors as well as activists involved with the 15-M movement in and around Madrid. It takes a "material ecocritical" approach, which is to say that it treats minds, spirits and language as necessarily "bodied" entities, and creates an absolute union between beings and the matter that constructs them as well as their habitat. I apply the lens of Jesper Hoffmeyer's Biosemiotics, which claims that life is at its most essential levels a communicative process. In other words, I will explore how "all matter is 'storied' matter," as well as how the "semiosphere," which is an important concept in biosmiotics, signaling a semiotic environment that predicts and defines all biological bodies/life, the human, the plant and the animal as beings who are made of and involved in semiotic activity, can serve as a basis for union amongst all bodies and provide a model of cooperation rooted in "storytelling." My project aims to embody what Wendy Wheeler describes as ecocriticism's, "syntheses between the sciences and the humanities" It is my strong opinion that creative writing has the power to offer the general public insight into the reasons why new research in biosemiotics is so important to the work that activists are doing to raise awareness of how humans can live responsibly on the only planet that is our home. This will help readers of creative writing and cultural studies scholars understand why they ought to embrace science, especially in literary and cultural studies, as a path to better understanding of the role of the humanities in an increasingly scientifically oriented world.
ContributorsDay, Timothy (Author) / Adamson, Joni (Thesis advisor) / Gutkind, Lee (Committee member) / Flys-Junquera, Carmen (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2016
Description
ABSTRACT
The early music revival in Paris, which came into full swing in the 1890s, had a defining impact on the composer Claude Debussy. Among the leaders of this movement were the Chanteurs de Saint Gervais under the direction of Charles Bordes and the Schola Cantorum, a school Bordes founded for the study and performance of early music in Paris. Debussy wrote admiringly of the performances of the Chanteurs and opera productions he saw at the Schola. He also spoke of the revelatory nature of performances of Renaissance masses that he heard in Italy after he won the Prix de Rome. Finally, he most likely visited Solesmes, important in the revival of plainchant. Hitherto unknown documents raise questions about the date of that visit, which most likely took place in 1892 or 1893.
A powerful manifestation of the influence of early music on Debussy’s compositional style is a melodic gesture that he referred to as “arabesque.” Debussy made many comments about the “divine arabesque,” which he related to the “primitives,” Palestrina, Victoria, and di Lasso. Further, Debussy connected those composers’ use of the arabesque to plainchant: “They found the basis of [the arabesque] in Gregorian chant, whose delicate tracery they supported with twining counterpoints.”
Debussy’s writings on early music provide a deeper context for understanding how plainchant, as well as music from the Renaissance, contributed to his compositional style, specifically in his use of modes and his notion of the arabesque. These influences are especially apparent in his only a cappella choral work, Trois chansons de Charles d’Orléans.
Until now, analysis of the Trois chansons has not sufficiently considered the importance of either plainchant or the arabesque and their influence on the style and character of this work. Viewing Debussy’s musical aesthetic through the lens of plainchant and the arabesque brings his music to life in a new and exciting way, resulting in a richer understanding and more informed performance practice, especially in the Trois chansons de Charles d’Orléans.
The early music revival in Paris, which came into full swing in the 1890s, had a defining impact on the composer Claude Debussy. Among the leaders of this movement were the Chanteurs de Saint Gervais under the direction of Charles Bordes and the Schola Cantorum, a school Bordes founded for the study and performance of early music in Paris. Debussy wrote admiringly of the performances of the Chanteurs and opera productions he saw at the Schola. He also spoke of the revelatory nature of performances of Renaissance masses that he heard in Italy after he won the Prix de Rome. Finally, he most likely visited Solesmes, important in the revival of plainchant. Hitherto unknown documents raise questions about the date of that visit, which most likely took place in 1892 or 1893.
A powerful manifestation of the influence of early music on Debussy’s compositional style is a melodic gesture that he referred to as “arabesque.” Debussy made many comments about the “divine arabesque,” which he related to the “primitives,” Palestrina, Victoria, and di Lasso. Further, Debussy connected those composers’ use of the arabesque to plainchant: “They found the basis of [the arabesque] in Gregorian chant, whose delicate tracery they supported with twining counterpoints.”
Debussy’s writings on early music provide a deeper context for understanding how plainchant, as well as music from the Renaissance, contributed to his compositional style, specifically in his use of modes and his notion of the arabesque. These influences are especially apparent in his only a cappella choral work, Trois chansons de Charles d’Orléans.
Until now, analysis of the Trois chansons has not sufficiently considered the importance of either plainchant or the arabesque and their influence on the style and character of this work. Viewing Debussy’s musical aesthetic through the lens of plainchant and the arabesque brings his music to life in a new and exciting way, resulting in a richer understanding and more informed performance practice, especially in the Trois chansons de Charles d’Orléans.
ContributorsRynex, Carolyn Rose (Author) / Schildkret, David (Thesis advisor) / Kopta, Anne (Committee member) / Saucier, Catherine (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2016