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Title
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Non-narrativity and parody in Samuel Beckett's radio play 'Words and Music'
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Author
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Abstract
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| Samuel Beckett’s radio play 'Words and Music' has drawn radically different responses from composers. However, one in particular – the score written by his cousin, John, for the BBC – is perhaps more instrumental than any other in helping us understand the relationship between Music and Words in the script, owing to the author’s involvement in the collaboration. What the chapter argues on the basis of this production, originally broadcast by the Third Programme on 13 November 1962, in combination with the text as published, is that it parodies programme music made to express themes. Additionally, it shows that, contrary to the usual effect of textual framing, what the radio play achieves is not a narrativization of music, but a ‘denarrativization’ of language, under music’s non-narrative influence. In order to make this point, the chapter combines a range of methodologies, including genetic criticism and archival research, (audio)narratology, musicology and philosophy. With regard to the latter, Arthur Schopenhauer’s esthetic theories, typically foregrounded in the critical discourse on 'Words and Music', is related to Vladimir Jankélévitch, who was a contemporary of Beckett and considered music as an inexpressive art form while criticizing the German philosopher’s Neoplatonist metaphysics. |
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Language
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English
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Source (book)
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Music and its Narrative Potential / Van Nerom, Carolien [edit.]; et al. [edit.]
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Publication
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Leiden
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Brill
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2024
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ISBN
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978-3-7705-6772-0
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Volume/pages
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p. 219-235
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Full text (publisher's version - intranet only)
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