Subject
Re: query; music and Nabokov
From
Date
Body
Dear Don,
I was pleased by your post regarding Richard Strauss, one of my favorite, and
the most literary of, composers, because it reminded me of the similarities and
analogies I have been entertaining in private for years.
His orchestral piece Ein Heldenleben always reminds me of Look At The
Harlequins, especially its fifth movement, Des Helden Friedenswerke, the way he
used themes from his previous works (Till Eulenspiegel, Macbeth, Also Sprach
Zarathustra, Don Juan, Don Quixote etc), while the second movement, The Hero’s
Adversaries, is Strauss’s “Reply to His Critics,” so to speak. Many critics
failed to perceive and appreciate its irony and humour.
The opera Salome was his succès de scandale, and stylistically it is as
innovative and exuberant as Lolita.
Elektra in its use of dissonance, chromaticism and harmonic parallelism was a
forerunner of modernism in music in the same way that Pale Fire heralded
postmodernism; and also his extremely complex use of leitmotifs is analogous to
VN’s.
VN's Lectures on Don Quixote have their counterpart in Strauss's orchestral work
Don Quixote.
Kind regards,
A. Bouazza
________________________________
From: Don Stanley <dstanley@TRU.CA>
To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
Sent: Tue, December 7, 2010 5:22:19 AM
Subject: [NABOKV-L] query; music and Nabokov
Query
Been listening to Richard Strauss, reading about him, and he reminds me of
Nabokov. Same sense of humor, interesting letters, full-term marriage,
hair-unfriendly forehead and an insistence on avoiding easy aesthetic
categories. For example, this Q and A from a press conference with Strauss has a
Nabakovian ring:
“What do you think of the American school of composers?”
“There aren’t any schools; there are only talents and geniuses.”
Strauss was a great musician who also loved writing. Nabokov was a great writer
who it seems to me doesn’t display much interest in music, surprisingly for a
father whose son became an opera singer (maybe something Nabokov has in common
with Michael Corleone).
The only significant reference to music I can think of offhand is the aversion
to jazz by his surrogate John Shade. Anyway, my query: is music a major factor
in Nabokov’s work?
All the best,
don
Search the archive Contact the Editors Visit "Nabokov Online Journal"
Visit Zembla View Nabokv-L Policies Manage subscription options
All private editorial communications, without exception, are read by both
co-editors.
Search archive with Google:
http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu&HL=en
Contact the Editors: mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu
Visit Zembla: http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm
View Nabokv-L policies: http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm
Visit "Nabokov Online Journal:" http://www.nabokovonline.com
Manage subscription options: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/
I was pleased by your post regarding Richard Strauss, one of my favorite, and
the most literary of, composers, because it reminded me of the similarities and
analogies I have been entertaining in private for years.
His orchestral piece Ein Heldenleben always reminds me of Look At The
Harlequins, especially its fifth movement, Des Helden Friedenswerke, the way he
used themes from his previous works (Till Eulenspiegel, Macbeth, Also Sprach
Zarathustra, Don Juan, Don Quixote etc), while the second movement, The Hero’s
Adversaries, is Strauss’s “Reply to His Critics,” so to speak. Many critics
failed to perceive and appreciate its irony and humour.
The opera Salome was his succès de scandale, and stylistically it is as
innovative and exuberant as Lolita.
Elektra in its use of dissonance, chromaticism and harmonic parallelism was a
forerunner of modernism in music in the same way that Pale Fire heralded
postmodernism; and also his extremely complex use of leitmotifs is analogous to
VN’s.
VN's Lectures on Don Quixote have their counterpart in Strauss's orchestral work
Don Quixote.
Kind regards,
A. Bouazza
________________________________
From: Don Stanley <dstanley@TRU.CA>
To: NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU
Sent: Tue, December 7, 2010 5:22:19 AM
Subject: [NABOKV-L] query; music and Nabokov
Query
Been listening to Richard Strauss, reading about him, and he reminds me of
Nabokov. Same sense of humor, interesting letters, full-term marriage,
hair-unfriendly forehead and an insistence on avoiding easy aesthetic
categories. For example, this Q and A from a press conference with Strauss has a
Nabakovian ring:
“What do you think of the American school of composers?”
“There aren’t any schools; there are only talents and geniuses.”
Strauss was a great musician who also loved writing. Nabokov was a great writer
who it seems to me doesn’t display much interest in music, surprisingly for a
father whose son became an opera singer (maybe something Nabokov has in common
with Michael Corleone).
The only significant reference to music I can think of offhand is the aversion
to jazz by his surrogate John Shade. Anyway, my query: is music a major factor
in Nabokov’s work?
All the best,
don
Search the archive Contact the Editors Visit "Nabokov Online Journal"
Visit Zembla View Nabokv-L Policies Manage subscription options
All private editorial communications, without exception, are read by both
co-editors.
Search archive with Google:
http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu&HL=en
Contact the Editors: mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu
Visit Zembla: http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm
View Nabokv-L policies: http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm
Visit "Nabokov Online Journal:" http://www.nabokovonline.com
Manage subscription options: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/