Neo-mythologism in Music: From Scriabin and Schoenberg to Schnittke and CrumbFrontcover -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Foreword -- I Neo-Mythologism: a Hermeneutic Construct and a Historic Trend -- Defining the Term: "Neo-Mythologism" as Assertion of Myth's Artistic Validity -- The Diachronic Perspective -- Remythification in Literature -- Early-Twentieth-Century Approaches to Myth in Music -- Creative Mythology During the Age of Disintegration -- Late-Twentieth-Century Approaches to Myth in Music -- The Role of Jungian Psychoanalysis in Neo-Mythologism -- Forerunners of Neo-Mythologism Prior to the Twentieth Century -- Wagner -- Scriabin -- The Synchronic Perspective -- Mythologems -- The Operational Modes and Archetypes of (Neo- )Mythic Thought -- II The Prime Structuring "Molds"of Myth and Music -- Binary Opposition -- Hindemith's Oppositive Thinking: Is Mediation Possible on Earth? -- Schoenberg, the Mediator of Opposites -- Other Instances of the Binary Opposition at Work -- The Idea of Symmetry and Mythological Twins -- The Odd and Even from Stravinsky to Reich -- Mythic Repetitiveness and Musical Ostinato -- The Mythologem of the World Tree as the Model for a Musical Score -- The Meaning of Ostinato in Minimalism: Steve Reich's The Desert Music -- "The Quest for the Invariant": Variability and Combinatoriality -- III Towards the Universality of Myth -- "Wie ein Naturlaut": Reaching Beyond Culture -- Crumb's "Evocation of Nature": Drones -- Imagining the Pre-Cultural: Babbitt's Philomel -- The Composer as "Archaeologist of Culture"--The Mythic "World Body" and the Idea of Global Communication -- From Universal Nature to Universal Culture -- Polystylistics in its Mythological Function: Stravinsky's Symphony of Psalms -- The Tower of Babel -- IV In Search of the Lost Union: Word-Myth-Music -- Assonance and Alliteration -- Babbling, the Language of Magic -- Mythic Power of Names in Stockhausen's Licht |
Contents
a Hermeneutic Construct and a Historic Trend | 1 |
The Synchronic Perspective | 18 |
The Prime Structuring Moldsof Myth and Music | 27 |
Mythic Repetitiveness and Musical Ostinato | 51 |
Variability and Combinatoriality | 64 |
Towards the Universality of Myth | 77 |
The Composer as Archaeologist of Culture | 83 |
Stravinskys | 90 |
Return of Number Symbolism | 185 |
Numerology in Musical Fabric and in Piece Grouping | 187 |
The Mythologem of a Circle | 201 |
The Circle in Archaic Myths and Jungs Theory | 207 |
The Circle in the Poetic Text of Ancient Voices of Children | 213 |
Historical Precedents? | 221 |
Stockhausens Curvilinear Thought | 230 |
The Cyclic Time of David Demnitz | 236 |
The Tower of Babel | 108 |
Assonance and Alliteration | 117 |
Mythic Power of Names in Stockhausens Licht | 125 |
Denisovs Requiem | 132 |
Cosmogony and Eschatology | 152 |
the Initiation Rite of Modernism | 168 |
The Musical Mythification of Technology and Science | 178 |
The Reception of Crumbs Music | 243 |
Schnittkes Mythological Outlook | 249 |
The Devil and the Perception of Schnittkes Early Style | 256 |
Postlude | 262 |
The English translation of the texts by García Lorca | 273 |
List of Illustrations | 287 |
Common terms and phrases
Alban Berg Alexei Losev Alfred Schnittke Ancient Voices archaic archetypal Arnold Schoenberg artistic associated Berg Berg's Black Angels characteristic chord circle circular notation composer composer's composition concept correspondences cosmic cosmology cosmos creation creative culture cycle demonstrates Denisov Desert Music Donnerstag elements example expression Figure George Crumb harmonies Hindemith's idea initial Jung Jungian Karlheinz Stockhausen language Lévi-Strauss Licht Losev Mâche Makrokosmos mandala meaning mediation Meletinsky modern Moscow movement myth and music mythic mind mythic thought mythographers mythologem mythological nature neo-mythologism Noces notion numerology Oliveros opera opposition ostinato Pauline Oliveros piano piece pitch classes poetic rehearsal number religion repetition represents Richard Taruskin Rite ritual role Russian sacred Schnittke's score Scriabin sempre solo sound Stravinsky structure styles stylistic symbolism symmetry Symphony of Psalms Taruskin theory tonal Toporov traditional trans triad twelve-tone twentieth century twentieth-century music unity University Press Voices of Children Wagner words York