Postcolonialist Edward Said has a critical study titled Musical Elaborations through which he suggests some views that exemplify the connection between literature and music. You may have a look at it.

Larisa, isn't it fascinating to find once again the connections between the Russians and French music! If Ravel didn't know Russian music, his own music would have been radically different. How is comparative literature at Haifa, a beautiful university that I have visited?

Onder, I deeply appreciate your reference to Edward Said, whose works I have read and respected

Also, one of my university teacher has been searching on the connection between pop music and literature, and he is in search of some music groups who are named after some literary figures and masterpieces. It must be very delighting to indulge in the relation between music and literature.

I am Javier San José from University of Salamanca (Spain). I teach a Master Course on Music and Literature in XXth Century Spain (mainly avant.garde).

http://literatura.usal.es/html/es/master/asignatura/datos.html?subjectId=108&PHPSESSID=squtchq49mes8jj7vlseomvn46&_key_=e7bd7eb21e5c62ee4baf6b723802cc56

I have published two works about Lorca and Music («Federico Gacía Lorca: literatura y música europea en tres movimientos», Studi Ispanici XXXVII (2012), pp. 233-251) and Falla's Retablo (««Literatura y música: El Retablo de Maese Pedro de Cervantes a Falla. Los valores estéticos», en Begoña Lolo, ed., Visiones del Quijote en la música del siglo XX, Madrid: Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación, Centro de Estudios Cervantinos, 2010, pp. 221-236).

This is not my main field of study (I work mainly "in Golden Age Spanish Literature) but I have always been interested in it. I am longing for your book on Lorca and Falla.

E. L. Doctrow's Ragtime, as the name recommends, can be subject to a study on the presence of ragtime music-- almost with all it's nuances of beat, melody, and chord-- in fictional discourse.

Onder, it is delightful to research the relationships between literature and music, not only in the classical, but also in the popular vein. As I told Javier, whose two articles I have read with great fruition, critics like J. P. Barricelli point out the dangers of drawing analogies between letters and music. But Hegel says that we should have the courage to make mistakes: we enrich our appreciation of composers and writers by analogizing their works (as the very authors do themselves). They will call us "impressionists." Fine! "Neo-impressionism" is what I practice. Larisa, I hope you will come visit my wife and me the next time you are in the United States so that we can discuss comparative literature and literary-musical connections.

Basir, the study of the stylistic and structure presence of ragtime and jazz in much literature of the 1920s and 30s still remains a fertile topic, open for examination. Thanks for your contribution. I am presently studying jazz rhythms in two "Afro-American" poems of the anthology "Poet in New York" by the Spanish poet Garcia Lorca. I have already read a study by musicologist Carol A. Hess on the same subject.

And don't forget Langston Hughes, whose poems maybe Lorca knew in New York

Has the connection with Hughes been studied systematically, Javier?

No as far as I know. Hughes has not even been translated into Spanish

Javier, I looked up Langston Hughes's poetry written by 1929-30. While I see blues there, I would be hard-pressed to find jazz. Also, there are references to rivers and bucolic identification with Africa, as in Lorca, but I suspect these are commonplaces of the Harlem Renaissance. Anyhow, it is worthwhile studying.

There is a wonderful intersection between literature and music in Ravel's fantasy opera "L'Enfant et les sortileges," whose libretto was Colette's. I am reminded of this by the jazz references here, since the black teapot sings and dances to a jazz beat.

Would it be fair to say that opera is a fertile crossroads between literature and music? Any examples besides the unfortunately obscure one I supplied?

Musical instruments also appear in literature. Federico Garcia Lorca has numerous poems on the guitar itself. This is a way of objectifying his own passions. Any other examples in other writers that you can think of?

The lists at the Wikipedia link below are worth a look.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lists_of_music_inspired_by_literature

N Orringer wrote: Would it be fair to say that opera is a fertile crossroads between literature and music?

Yes indeed, and also the modern equivalent of opera: musicals. The classic is of course Bernstein's West Side Story. Also his Symphony No. 2, The Age of Anxiety, (after W. H. Auden) for Piano and Orchestra, 1949 (revised in 1965).

Great answer! I never thought of the American connection but should have.

Come to think of it, Gershwin´s opera "Porgy and Bess" was inspired by DuBose Hayward´s novel and play "Porgy."

Peter Stockinger put me in contact with the structuralist ethnologist Levi-Strauss´s treatise "Mythologie." Lo and behold, this learned scientist uses a Western musical structure for his own attempts to assort the myths of South and North American natives. His book begins with an epigraph from "A la Musique" by Chabrier, then goes onward with an "Ouverture," continues with "Thème et Variations," heads onward to a "Sonate," a "Symphonie brève," a "Fugue," a "Cantate," etc., etc.

This is a unique way to structure scientific information, and I am wondering if I can apply the same musical structuring to my own emerging book, "Ravel and the Myth of Spain." Any output from you, Peter, and from anybody else about the usefulness of Levy-Strauss in this connection?

I am out of my depth--just a scientist and amateur musician who got attracted to your post on RG. But Levi-Strauss was a complex and interesting man.

"For instance he compares anthropology to musical serialism and defends his "philosophical" approach."

From: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Levi-Strauss#Anthropological_theories

And maybe there is food for thought for you in musical serialism:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serialism

Thanks, A. U. Daniels. Serialism is a way of composing music whereby you must play in a series all 12 notes of the conventional diatonic scale (in an original order) before you repeat the same 12 notes again in a series. Subsequently, forms of serialism seriated durations instead of notes Actually, Lévy-Strauss uses more traditional musical forms for his anthropology, involving myths of indigenous tribes of South and North America. The analogy between music and mythology has to do with structures of codes in each. No, you are not "out of your depth": any scientist worth his science must provide a clear exposition of his finds, accessible to all.

I am happy to report to all the researchers on this string that my book "Lorca in Tune with Falla" (Toronto: U. Toronto P., 2014), 300 pp., has today appeared in print.

I think a good example of literature closely linked to music is James Baldwin's "Sonny's Blues". The whole text is structured like a jazz composition (blues). Reading it from that perspective adds to its richness.

Yes! Great example! Sometimes a printed text suggests reading rhythms in the distribution of words and spaces. Example: "Vals" (Waltz) by F. Garcia Lorca in "Poet in New York." You read it in the rhythm of a waltz line by line.

The following link is to a conference CFP that tries to bring together Translation Studies and Musicology. Although this may seem slightly off-topic, it adds another perspective on the relationship between literature and music. See for yourself:

http://www.cardiff.ac.uk/music/newsandevents/events/conferences/14translationinmusic/index.html

Begoña Lolo (UAM) has worked extensively on musical adaptations of "Don Quixote". If you read German, the following chapter (open access) may be of interest:

http://hup.sub.uni-hamburg.de/volltexte/2008/81/pdf/HamburgUP_Altenberg_Quijote.pdf

Thank you, Tilmann. Yes, I do read German. Right now I am working on Maurice Ravel´s "Don Quichotte à Dulcinée," three lieder in French for baritone and piano, very beautiful and very underrated.

Another example from the Hispanic context would be Julio Cortázar's "Rayuela" (and other texts) that not only make reference to jazz music but, according to some, show structural similarities.

Excellent example, TIlmann. I had forgotten about that tricky novel.

I am thinking that perhaps I should contact Begoña Lolo (UAM) by email. After reading her fine little article on D.Q., it occurs to me that maybe she has information on Ravel.

Maybe a little sideways from your topic, but here are 3 of my favorite books about music and the mind (and thus inevitably literary accounts of the meaning of music).

In reverse chronological order:

Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain. Oiiver Sacks, 2007.

Music & the Mind. Anthony Storr, 1992.

Late Night Thoughts on Listening to Mahler's Ninth Symphony.

Lewis Thomas, 1983.

Dear A. U. Daniels, the references to music and the mind are not sideways at all, but straight on point. How do we cerebrate music? Is it in the same part of the brain as literary appreciation? I also have "late night thoughts" about Mahler, especially his First Symphony, 3rd movement, with its odd mix of "Bruder Martin" (Frère Jacques) and klezmer music. There is so much to turn over in your mind about that composer morning, noon, or night. Thanks for your post, very informative.

Dear Nelson and A.U. Daniels,

Another book to add is Daniel Levitin's "This is Your Brain on Music," a wonderful look at just how highly tuned the brain is to music--without our conscious input. There is also a wonderful lecture, video series from the Library of Congress called "Music and the Brain" that is available free in ITunes University. It contains all the materials from a two-year program conducted at the library and covers "Your Brian on jazz" and "Wednesday is Indigo Blue" and goes into "Music as Therapy" and "Music as Medicine." A really fascinating part of the Library series is "Halt! Or I'll Play Vivaldi!" It is worth checking out.

Aysha Bey

Dear Aysha,

I truly appreciate those references and shall look them up. Having just come home from a chamber concert of Mozart, Beethoven, and Dvorak, all of my psyche was "in motion," performing from my seat, even my subconscious. (And I´d rather not hear Vivaldi!)

Dear Nelson,

Another fascinating text is Kitty Ferguson's study of "The Music of Pythagoras." Her research area is astronomy and physics but her study of the classical studies of Pythagoras and later Plato link their discovery of the basic musical ratios to the rational order of the universe. What I find fascinating are the two chapters "All Things Known Have Number" and "Ancients, Our Superiors Who Dwelt Nearer." Since you read musical scores and can follow the system of the musical ratios, her charts describing intervals, etc. make even more remarkable the works of Plato and Pythagoras in all realms of classical philosophy. I got into these studies after teaching Milton's "Paradise Lost" over the years with an interest in his music of the celestial spheres. When the theoretical physicists and astronomers published their findings that the universe hums in the key of B flat, I was instantly hooked on the relationship of music to math, universal harmony and Einstein's unified field theory.(I actually got to hear the hum; how there is a hum in space that is soundless,I don't know). Perhaps string theory with its vibrating strings does have something to say about a unified theory of everything. We know in cognitive science, for instance, that the portions of the brain that light up when we listen to Mozart also light up when we work math. When I teach study skills, I always include classical music, chiefly Mozart and Chopin, to calm but stimulate the brain sufficiently to help encode memories. Kids whose musical intelligence is limited to rap and pounding backbeats come to appreciate the power of the classical to work magic on the mind.

A text that has had a profound impact on my understanding of all things classical and early modern is S.K. Heninger's "Touches of Sweet Harmony." It is the most amazing text in the relationships of music, math, memory, cosmic order, etc. In the "Ithaca" episode of Ulysses, Joyce actually plays with a great deal of this material on numbers and memory.

One of our most troubled high schools had so much physical aggression in the lunchroom that they decided to try something new other than the popular music often played in the cafeteria. They switched to classical music--and the fights stopped. Kids even began to ask about the composers and gained more than a grudging respect for the music of the classical/romantic period.

Aysha

Dear Professor Nelson Orringer,

Nowadays, its difficult to relate literature and music due to film industry. But if we look back, we can say before inception of art, literature, music and dance were inter-related and was treated as single activity.

Kundera's most famous work, The Unbearable Lightness of Being, is a work of music.

a good discussion. This has created an avenue for me to need your help and suggestion.We are going to have a fest on Music and Literature. This is framed by the students of Engineering university. I would be thankful if you can give me suggestion. This is going to be in Chennai, India - a -an intercologiate fest. I would like to have your suggestion on the list of the speakers and also the different programmes that we can have

Dear Prof. Orringer - 

I have posted to this thread a few times before. I am a long time writer of poetry. Some of my poems have been published, but not many. I have mostly written for the fun of taking them to a series of writing groups in the USA and here in CH over some decades.  My poems tend to be rhythmic but not formally so, and a few are about music. If you would like to see the ones about music, send me an email at [email protected] 

Thank you all for these contributions, it has given me some ideas in my search for a master thesis topic.

Since there has been a lot of talk a out Lorca, has someone studied Leonard Cohen’s Take This Waltz and the way the poet influenced the musician/poet? Or the general influence of literature on Cohen’s repertoire such as Biblical references, songs such as Go No More A-Roving which is a poem by Lord Byron which he put to music.