Introduction

In this session we will consider the various and varied relationships between music and text in vocal music. Whilst the notion of human utterance is implicit in our analysis, we will focus our attention on the conjunction of text and music from a structural perspective at this point. The aim of the session is therefore to develop a greater awareness of the complex interplay between textual and musical elements, and to work towards developing a methodology for analysis that will (eventually) incorporate a consideration of musicological, semiological, phonetic and performative aspects of vocal music.

Preparation

• Read Peter Stacey’s Towards the Analysis of the Relationship of Music and Text in Contemporary Composition.

Class Documents

• Summary of Stacey’s Music and Poetic Texts/Music and Prose Texts analytical framework

Class Examples

The following examples are available in the University Library, or on YouTube. Links are provided where available.

• Perotin – Viderunt Omnes
• Henry Purcell – Music for a While [Text] [Score]
• Anon | Percy Grainger – Brigg Fair | Brigg Fair
• Arnold Schoenberg – Nacht   from Pierrot Lunaire
• Kurt Weill – Barbarasong from The Threepenny Opera
• Gerald Finzi – Fear No More the Heat o' the Sun
• Peter Maxwell-Davies – Eight Songs for a Mad King
• Trevor Wishart – Anticredos
• Bobby McFerrin  – Another Night in Tunisia
• Luciano Berio – Sequenza III
• Eminem – Lose Yourself

Further Reading

• Roland Barthes – ‘The Grain of the Voice’ in Image-Music-Text
• Steven Connor – The Decomposing Voice of Postmodern Music
• Nina Horvath – The “Theatre of the Ear”: Analyzing Berio’s Musical Documentary A-Ronne
• Janet Halfyard – Before Night Comes: Narrative and Gesture in Berio’s Sequenza III
• John Williamson (ed.) – Words and Music