Literature Expressed Through Music: Musical Portrayals of Dante\u27s Divine Comedy

The project Literature Expressed Through Music: Musical Portrayals of Dante’s ‘Divine Comedy’ analyzes and compares different musical settings of Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy and examines the creation of a unique composition depicting Dante’s literary ideas. This research examines how three different composers conveyed interpretations of the Divine Comedy through musical compositions. A background section outlines the history of program music and use of music to represent narratives and extra-musical ideas. A literature review of studies on Peter Ilych Tchaikovsky’s Francesca da Rimini: Symphonic Fantasy After Dante and Franz Liszt’s compositions, Après une lecture du Dante: Fantasia quasi Sonata and Dante Symphony, guides a comparison of stylistic and thematic techniques employed by the composers. A stylistic and theoretical analysis of Brett Abigaña’s Symphony No. 2 – La Commedia provides a contemporary counterpart to compare with the Tchaikovsky and Liszt pieces. This analysis of expressions of Dante’s literary masterpiece provides musical ideas for creating a unique setting of the Divine Comedy. The latter part of the project consists of a composition inspired by the Divine Comedy to be performed by a small instrumental ensemble. The final product of this project consists of a literature review, an analysis and comparison of the four compositions, and an explanation of the creative process for the unique composition