A Linguistic-musical Analysis of Ravel's Trois poemes de Stephane Mallarme

本論文從音樂與詩歌的角度探索拉威爾的歌曲作品《馬拉美的三首詩》：「歎息」（’Soupir’）、「徒然的請求」（’Placet futile’）及「花開苦短」（’Surgi de la croupe et du bond’）。本文以拉威爾的訪問節錄開展：「我對我的作品《馬拉美的三首詩》有特殊的偏愛，它並不會成為受歡迎作品，因為我在當中轉換了馬拉美--這位我個人認為是法國最偉大詩人之文學技法。」本文會探究拉威爾所指的「轉換」（transposition）過程及詩人的「文學技法」（literary procedures），並提出拉威爾所指的「轉換」和馬拉美詩學裏「轉換」概念有密切關係。馬拉美提出的「轉換」概念是以語義和意象為前題，為此不惜扭曲語法或運用語言特徵描繪意象，從而營造詩歌效果；而拉威爾的歌曲創作則運用聲效和其他音樂手法描繪詩歌的意象和複製詩歌的閱讀過程，其音樂語言不時違反慣常的調性和和弦邏輯。本文亦提出這三首馬拉美詩歌的「轉換」過程由拉威爾所指的「文學技法」引導，這些「文學技法」以法語語言特徵引領詩歌的意象和閱讀過程。本文大量擷取馬拉美的散文和書信，以及十九世紀末對象徵主義美學的研究文獻，以細讀法審視這三首馬拉美詩歌，並提供仔細的詮釋方法；另一方面，本文以語言學分析研讀詩歌裏的語言意義，並解釋當中的語言特徵如何構成詩歌的意義。語言分析集中於：（1）「歎息」裏語法上的片語成分轉移；（2）「徒然的請求」裏的社會指示語（social deixis）、韻律（prosody）及語言動作（verbal action）的運用；（3）「花開苦短」裏關於否定虛詞（negative particles）的運用。至於拉威爾的音樂方面，本文會採用傳統的和弦理論進行音樂分析。「歎息」裏的語法與語義的分歧展現在從屬的語法結構及暗喻鏡像的對稱意象裏。這分歧展現於歌曲第一部分末端的歧義終止式，從而令歌曲出現歧義曲式。詩中的複雜語法結構須在閱讀過程中不斷重組字詞的語法功能，這反映在歌曲不斷改變調性的預期上。另外，歌曲裏的指示性聲響（referential sonority）提示了非線性的語法結構。「徒然的請求」裏頻繁變換的謙敬與日常稱呼語（polite and casual address forms）暗示了詩中主人翁--公主與僧人似遠還近的微妙關係。在拉威爾的音樂語言裏，兩人的互動以主導動機（leitmotiv）的發展和配器手法反映，主導動機音域的收窄和交疊暗示了互動。至於請求的「徒然」則以轉調的「徒然」來暗示，而且詩中敘事角度的轉換亦反映在調性功能的轉換。此外，對話中的語調由誇張、具戲劇性的旋律和彈性的節奏展現。「花開苦短」裏大量的否定虛詞體現了馬拉美詩學的「虛無過程」（neantization process）-以抽空字詞的意義達至虛無狀態（Nothingness）。在拉威爾的歌曲裏，調性音牆被重覆出現的八聲音階動機「否定」，以至歌曲末段成為純粹不和諧音，這對應了詩人的「虛無過程」-動機如同否定虛詞，從而達至絕對的虛無。而拉威爾的主題主導（theme-oriented）作曲方式猶如馬拉美以單一意念開展的創作過程。My thesis examines music and poetry in Maurice Ravel’s Trois poèmes de Stéphane Mallarmé set from three Mallarmé’s poems: ‘Soupir’ (‘Sigh’), ‘Placet futile’ (‘Futile Petition’) and ‘Surgi de la croupe et du bond’ (‘Rising from the curve and the leap’). This study was prompted by the quote by Ravel, ‘I have a predilection for my Trois poèmes de Stéphane Mallarmé, which obviously will never be a popular work, since in it I transposed the literary procedures of Mallarmé, whom I personally consider France’s greatest poet.’ After identifying the ‘literary procedures’ by Mallarmé and examining the ‘transposition’ by Ravel, I argue that the ‘transposition’ process is closely related to the Transposition concept in Mallarmé’s poetic idea, i.e. privilege of semantics over syntax to create effect, and that the ‘literary procedures’ are related to the deployment of linguistic properties in the poems to achieve the Transposition process. In Ravel’s setting, the suggestive sonorities and the emulation of perceptual process are emphasized prior to the conventional harmonic practice and musical logic. The focus on the ‘musical semantics’ over ‘musical syntax’ can be considered as the equivalent of Mallarmé’s Transposition.I use close readings to examine Mallarmé’s poems, drawing from his writings and letters on his views on poetry and language, and make references from the Symbolist aesthetics in his time to provide hermeneutic analyses of the poems. On the other hand, I use linguistic analysis to examine the linguistic peculiarities deployed by the poet and explain how they are related to the poem meaning. The analyses focus on: (1) the peculiar syntactic structure in ‘Soupir’; (2) social deixis, prosody and the use of verbal actions in ‘Placet futile’ and; (3) negations in ‘Surgi’. In approaching Ravel’s music, I use traditional harmonic theory in the musical analysis.In ‘Soupir’, the discrepancy between syntax and semantics is revealed through contrastive imagery that is framed in a large sentence. The subordinate sentence structure unfolds symmetrical imagery that alludes to mirror-images. Such discrepancy can be found in the ambiguous cadence between the two sections, resulting in an ambiguous song form in Ravel’s setting. The reading process of the long sentence requires constant adaptation of the syntactic functions of the constituents, which is reflected in the constant shifting of tonal expectation in Ravel’s setting.In ‘Placet futile’, the interchanging use of address forms (polite form and familiar form) in the poem induces a reading of an ambiguous social relationship between the two protagonists, an abbot and a princess. The development of leitmotifs displays the interaction of the two persons through the narrowing of registral distance and the instrumentation. The futility of the abbot to get close to the princess is alluded by the failure of modulation at the end. Furthermore, the conversational intonation is declaimed in a dramatic melody contour with more flexible rhythm.The pervasive negative particles in ‘Surgi de la croupe et du bond’ correspond to the ‘neatisation process’ (negation process) in poetry proposed by Mallarmé to extract the idea from language to achieve Nothingness in his poetics. In Ravel’s setting, the diatonic pitch fields are ‘negated’ by disruption of the two repeating octatonic motives, resulting in dissonances toward the end of the song, parallel to the ‘neantisation process’ in the poem. The motives serve as negative particles and the theme-oriented approach further resembles Mallarmé’s creation process of expanding a single idea.Choi, Ka-Man Misty.Thesis M.Phil. Chinese University of Hong Kong 2017.Includes bibliographical references (leaves ).Abstracts also in Chinese.Title from PDF title page (viewed on …).Detailed summary in vernacular field only.Detailed summary in vernacular field only.Detailed summary in vernacular field only.Detailed summary in vernacular field only.Detailed summary in vernacular field only