PAUL VALÉRY AND MUSIC

👤Author

Name: Magda Dragu

📄Article

Citation Recommendation: DRAGU, Magda. ‟Paul Valéry and music”. Synthesis, no. XXXVII, 2010, pp. 59-69.
Title: PAUL VALÉRY AND MUSIC
Pages: 59-69
Language: English
URL: https://synthesis.ro/pdf/2010/XXXVII/7_M_Dragu.pdf

Excerpt:

In this paper I will discuss the connections between Paul Valéry’s poetry and music and will analyze two of his writings, La Jeune Parque (1917) and L’Ame et la Danse (1921). I will highlight how both texts are affected by references to music. Though they are not particularly cases of musicalizations of fictions (see infra) in the proper meaning of the word, the understanding of these poems is dependent on two musical works mentioned by the poet. Valéry repeatedly indicated that one of the sources of the poem La Jeune Parque was Gluck’s opera Orpheo ed Euridice (1762) and the source for L’Ame et la Danse was Stravinsky’s ballet The Rite of Spring. In my interpretation I will try to show how the two musical works help us better understand the texts.

Bibliography

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