Interpretation of A. Bertran’s poetry by m. Ravel in piano suite "Gaspard de la nuit"

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Regional municipal Higher Education Institution Mykhailo Glinka Dnipropetrovsk Academy of Music (Dnipro, Ukraine)

Department of History and Theory of Music

Interpretation of A. Bertran's poetry by m. Ravel in piano suite “Gaspard de la nuit”

Svitlana Shchitova

Candidate of Art History

Associate Professor

Head of the Department

Kateryna Kapitonova

Magister at the Department

Abstract

The article reveals aspects of reading by the French composer M. Ravel texts from the collection «Gaspar from darkness. Fantasies in the manner of Rembrandt and Callo» by the French poet A. Bertrand, the concept ofphantasmagoric- ity, which led to the selection ofmaterials from the cycle / suite of Ravel's «Gaspard de la nuit» («Night Gaspar»). Turning to the epigraphs from the poems in the prose of A Bertrand, Ravel ignores the vicissitudes of the plot, preserving only its main features, an impressive beginning - this is the starting point for creating a cycle.

The main attention is focused on the selection and interpretation of the text of the work of A. Bertrand, which suggests that the idea of death combines the poems chosen by M. Ravel. Starting from the definition of the word «phantasmagoria» as «the accumulation of bizarre images, visions, fantasies; chaos, confusion, grotesque», the article considers the author's vision ofphantasmagoria in literature and music. Mystical, fantastic and phantasmagoric plots were popular in all kinds of art. But in music, compared to other arts, phantasmagoria has been the subject of creative interests only since the 19th century. The great prose writer E.T.A. Hoffmann opened a new page in the history of German romantic literature and, at the same time, he gave impetus to the development of phantasmagoria in the opera genre. It was Hoffman who laid the foundation for phantasmagoricism in music by combining the fantastic and the real in the conflict of musical drama of the opera «Undine». Trying to understand these manifestations of the mystical, phantasmagoric at the level of only instrumental music was the purpose of our work. We paid attention to M. Ravel's piano cycle «Night Gaspar», in which, surprisingly, all stages of development of the mystical and fantastic, which was characteristic of the era of Romanticism, reach a new level in the Impressionist composer. The composer first entered the realm of the mysterious and gloomy, in his music sounded a tragic note, which may have been associated with the illness and death of his father. But Ravel remained the master of his emotions and during his stay in the world of the tragic and terrible, retained full control over the material, achieving perfection in the implementation of the plan.

Key words: impressionism, mysticism, romanticism, poetry, phantasmagoria, cycle.

Світлана Щітова, кандидат мистецтвознавства, доцент, завідувач кафедри історії та теорії музики КВНЗ «Дніпропетровська академія музики імені Михайла Глінки» Дніпропетровської обласної ради» (Дніпро, Україна)

Катерина Капитонова, магістрант кафедри історії та теорії музики КВНЗ «Дніпропетровська академія музики імені Михайла Глінки» Дніпропетровської обласної ради» (Дніпро, Україна)

Інтерпретація поезії А. Бертрана М. Равелем у фортепіанній сюїті “Gaspard de la nuit”

Анотація

ravel suite poet bertrand

У статті розкриваються аспекти прочитання французьким композитором М. Равелем текстів зі збірки «Гаспар з тьми. Фантазії в манері Рембрандта і Калло» французького поета А. Бертрана, поняття фантасмагоричності, що зумовили відбір матеріалів циклу/сюїти Равеля «Gaspard de la nuit» («Нічний Гаспар»). Звернувшись до епіграфів із поем у прозі А. Бертрана, Равель ігнорує перипетії сюжету, зберігаючи лише його основні риси, вражаючий початок, це і стає відправною точкою для створення циклу.

Основну увагу зосереджено на відборі та інтерпретації тексту твору А. Бертрана, що дає змогу припустити: ідея смерті поєднує вибрані М. Равелем вірші. Відштовхуючись від дефініції слова «фантасмагорія» як «нагромадження химерних образів, видінь, фантазій; хаос, сумбур, гротеск», у статті розглядається авторське бачення фантасмагорії в літературі і музиці. Містичні, фантастичні і фантасмагоричні сюжети були популярні у всіх видах мистецтва. Але в музиці порівняно з іншими видами мистецтва фантасмагорія стала предметом творчих інтересів лише з ХІХ століття. Великий письменник-прозаїк Е.Т.А. Гофман відкрив нову сторінку в історії німецької романтичної літератури і разом із тим дав поштовх розвитку фантасмагорії в оперному жанрі. Саме Гофман заклав основу фантасмагоричності в музиці шляхом поєднання фантастичного і реального в конфліктності музичної драматургії опери «Ундіна». В інструментальних жанрах ми знаходимо прояв фантасмагорії як частини музичної драматургії, у фіналі «Фантастичної симфонії» Г. Берліоза і низці творів Ф. Ліста. Спробою зрозуміти ці прояви містичного, фантасмагоричного на рівні тільки інструментальної музики стало метою нашої роботи. Ми звернули увагу на фортепіанний цикл М. Равеля «Нічний Гаспар», в якому дивним чином усі етапи розвитку містичного і фантастичного, що було властиво епосі романтизму, виходять на новий рівень у композитора-імпресіоніста. Композитор уперше вступив у сферу таємничого і похмурого, в його музиці прозвучала трагічна нота, яка, можливо, була пов'язана із хворобою і смертю його батька. Але Равель залишався господарем своїх емоцій і під час перебування у світі трагічного і страшного зберігав повну владу над матеріалом, досягаючи досконалості втілення задуму.

Ключові слова: імпресіонізм, містика, романтизм, поезія, фантасмагорія, цикл.

Formulation of the problem

In Maurice Ravel's piano cycle «Night Gaspar», all stages of development of the mystical and fantastic, which were characteristic of the Romantic era, reach a new level in the author's interpretations of medieval images by a romantic writer and impressionist composer. The appeal to Bertrand's poetry (through the only published collection) in music remains a single phenomenon to this day. Despite this, «Gaspar out of the darkness. Fantasies in the Manner of Rembrandt and Callo» by A. Bertrand can be considered unique and in many ways innovative, from which a new genre of «poetry in prose» is born. The musical reading of the poetry collection is also unique in its own way, as it sheds new light on the «night romance of horrors», placing new accents on the concept of «phantasmagoria».

Research analysis

Different aspects of Ravel's work, including his piano cycles, have been the subject of much research. Among them, a special place is occupied by the works of O. Nevskaya: «Maurice Ravel and the “philosophy of dandyism”» (Nevskaya, 2006), « “Gaspar from darkness” by A. Bertrand-M. Ravel. Lecture on the course “History of Foreign Music”» (Nevskaya, 2006), dissertation «Piano works by M. Ravel: music in dialogue with literature» (Nevskaya, 2007). The chapter «“Gaspar from Darkness” by Aloisius Bertrand is devoted to A. Bertrand's work. Gothic and Romanticism» in the monograph by T.M. Zhuzhgina-Allahverdyan «French Romantic Literature of the 1820s: The Structure of a Mythopoetic Text» (Zhuzhgina- Allahverdyan, 2015); culturological aspects are revealed in the works of T.M. Zhuzhgina- Allahverdyan «Strategy of spiritual thinking in a romantic mythopoetic context» (Zhuzhgina-Allahverdyan, 2003), «Mythopoetic motives of night and dreams in French romantic literature» (Zhuzhgina-Allahverdyan, 2003).

The aim of the work is to identify the peculiarities of reading «poems in prose» in the context of phantasmagoria in poetry and music.

Generalized results

The cycle «Night Gaspar» is an incredible concentration of psychologism. Its images are fantastic, inspired by poetic feeling. Impressionist tasks recede into the background, the main thing is to reveal the inner world. It is in this that Ravel approaches the aesthetics of Romanticism. This is due to the fact that the composer found inspiration in the works of the German romantic Bertrand. In the style of this work, the composer goes from impressionism to expressionism. Expressionism will be a new stage in the development of phantasmagoria in music. The very appeal to the theme of death and the unification of this main theme of all plays is the first manifestation of phantasmagoria in Ravel's cycle «Night Gaspar». A different approach to understanding and outlining this theme makes each play artistically complete and unlike any other.

Presenting main material

At all times, people were attracted by everything unknown and mystical. Everyone longs to know the truth of being and the purpose of his existence on earth. And the appeal to mystical art is connected, first of all, with the attempt to convey the fragility of human nature, its place in the context of the vastness of the soul, consciousness, world. Mysticism helps to emphasize how frightening and at the same time beautiful can be the world, passed through the prism of human perception.

Mystical, fantastic and phantasmagoric plots were popular in all kinds of art. But in music, compared to other arts, phantasmagoria has been the subject of creative interests only since the nineteenth century. The great writer-prose E.T.A. Hoffmann opened a new page in the history of German romantic literature and, at the same time, gave impetus to the development of phantasmagoria in the opera genre. It was Hoffman who laid the foundation for phantasmagoricity in music by combining the fantastic and the real in the conflict of musical drama of the opera «Ondine».

We paid attention to Maurice Ravel's piano cycle «Night Gaspar», in which surprisingly all the stages of development of the mystical and fantastic, which was characteristic of the Romantic era, reach a new level in the Impressionist composer.

Ravel had never seen such a concentration of ominously fantastic. For the first time the composer entered the realm of the mysterious and gloomy, a tragic note sounded in his music, which may have been associated with the illness and death of his father. But Ravel remained the master of his emotions and during his stay in the world of the tragic and terrible, retained full power over the material and achieving the perfection of the embodiment of the plan.

Fiction and gloomy images of the poetry of the French romantic Alloisius Bertrand, who is considered the founder of the genre of «poems in prose», prompted the creation of the composer's cycle. His collection «Gaspard from Darkness. Fantasy in the manner of Rembrandt and Kallo» consists of miniature stories that «with their structure and peculiar mythopoetic content resemble verbal sketches, drafts, fragments of medieval short stories of parable, legendary and fairy tale content» (Zhuzhgina-Allakhverdyan, 2015: 193). Bertrand combines his miniature stories into a collection, without linking them to the plot. The poetry collection «Gaspar from Darkness» is a kaleidoscope of paintings from mythology, a terrible tale, a dreamy confusion of day and night, real and imaginary.

Turning to the full text of the work of A. Bertrand, we can conclude: the idea of death combines the poems chosen by M. Ravel. Earlier, with the theme of death, which subjugated the composer's consciousness and, as a result, the entire musical cycle, we met in the works of M. Mussorgsky in «Songs and Dances of Death». In Ravel's cycle, in the image of Ondine, death appears as an unknown mystery that leads to a mysterious world. A gallows is a real, physical, and ugly embodiment of death. And in the image of Scarbo, the other world aggressively invades reality, causing destruction and death.

As epigraphs to the plays, Ravel leads poems in A. Bertrand's prose. But Ravel ignores the ups and downs ofthe plot, preserving only its main features, an impressive beginning, which becomes the starting point for creating the cycle. As O. Nevskaya defines: «In Gaspar from the Darkness, the degree of presence of a “non-sounding” word is unusually high. However, the nature of the Ravel-Bertrand interaction is different in every play. In all three plays <...> the plot-like parallels with the source, in “Ondine” and “Gallows” - structural similarities to Bertrand verses ... the concept of “Ondine” was determined <...> by the plot (sequence of events), “Gallows” - “affects” (hallucination, state of numbness), and “Scarbo” - the idea (transformation of the image) of Bertrand's poems» (Nevska, 2007: 26-27).

All three plays are written in ambiguous keys, in which the tonic is revealed very hiddenly. They are open in harmonic and tonal terms.

In Ondine, Ravel refers to the water element already familiar to him, the image of which is created by the phonism and sonority of chords. At first glance, the surprisingly calm harmonies that paint the image of Ondine are full of detachment. Expanding dynamically and textured, they create the impression of unreality and the expectation of a fantastic outcome.

Through the whole play passes a gentle, somewhat chilly melody of the song of Ondine, shaded by transparent accompaniment. The figurative and emotional content of the melody is detached and impersonal - as, Ondine herself is not a person.

For the following plays, Ravel chose the texts from the last part of Bertrand's book «Gallows» and «Scarbo» - two poems created by the poet right before his death. Irresistible sorrow and hardly restrained desperate expression, characterizing the latest texts of French romance, determines the uniqueness of the musical images of the «Gallows».

What could have been more alien to Ravel than the terrifying picture of the gallows, recreated in the poem of A. Bertrand? After all, the plot in its medieval character is far from the era of the creation of the «Gaspar of the Night».

The Hangman is a chilling picture full of many details: the howling wind, the buzzing of a grave-beetle, and the sound of bells. Creepy delusional visions, not peculiar to the composer's worldview, come in contact with tragedy, mysticism and a nightmare.

Ravel achieves dramatic tension without underlining the escalation of emotions, remaining within the framework of a slow, nowhere disturbed movement, restraint in the range of dynamic colors, emphasized by the remark «without expression». The composer uses the means that make music calm, while it must convey fear and numbness, the sinister atmosphere of the Middle Ages, in accordance with Bertrand's poem and Goethe's close lines sent to the play.

The basis of the musical composition becomes ostinato on the sound of B flat - it is an ominous fateful bell that permeates the image of a strangled man throughout the play. It is also heard in all the stanzas of Bertrand - from the beginning of the poem the disturbing poet of the question: «Ah! What am I hearing?» to the terrible answer in the final stanza: «This bell rings against the city walls, and a crimson sunset floods the horizon and skeleton of a strangled man with blood» (Bertrand, 1981: 119). This bell ringing sounds in an octave duplication throughout the play in different voices and with sharp accents. To emphasize the significance of this tragic bell ringing, Ravel uses a three-line view of the clavier record. The whole cycle is characterized by openness in harmonic and tonal terms, and only in the «Gallows» is the tonic bass indicated, but chords of the non-tertiary structure are also superimposed on it.

The play is interesting for its piano texture, the use of chord strata surrounding a melodic voice and the mastery of the pedal technique (B flat sound, sounding first to the end).

The author himself put the «Gallows» in a special place, pointing to the simplicity and severity of its tragic expression, so difficult to express. Without an open tension of emotions that remain in the background, hidden and therefore affecting the listener with particular strength.

On the contrary, in the third play, «Scarbo», the expression of feeling is brought to an explosive climax, and this is completely different, but also unusual for a composer like Ravel.

The figurativeness of the play does not consist in conveying external plot details, but in revealing the experiences of a person who suddenly encounters a terrible vision.

The exposition of the play consists of two elements: the first, consisting of three notes, and the second, also short, full of undercurrent anxiety, bearing elements of solidity, growing out of the main intonation, under which the composer himself implied the words «what a horror!» The «motive of horror» and the terrible vision that rose to the height of the Gothic bell tower disappear, leaving a trace only in the flickering tremolo, completing the music in full accordance with the poetic program.

The texture presented by saturated chaotic figures becomes the main character and carries a dominant emotional content. It is filled with barbs of jumps, dynamic tension. The composer uses various techniques to dynamize the image. One of the main ones is the transformation of the passages of small piano technique into massive chord sequences, either expanding to cover almost the entire keyboard, or narrowing to almost a stop in a large octave.

This play has no beginning or end - there is no fulcrum, so to speak - the endless flow of Scarbo energy, the appearance and disappearance of nowhere. Like Ondine, Scarbo does not end, but suddenly stops and disappears.

Conclusions

Thus, the very appeal to the theme of death and the unification of all the plays by this dominant theme is the first manifestation of hoax in Ravel's «Gaspar Night» cycle. A different approach to comprehending and outlining this topic makes each play, in terms of art, independently completed and unlike the others. Mystical fantasies («Ondine») are continued by the awe-inspiring reality («The Gallows») and completes the mixture of the real and the surreal («Scarbo»).

The harmonious coldness of the impressionistic language of the «Ondine» is supported by rhythmic uniformity, the remoteness of the hiding melody. Frozen ostinateness, syncopation, squeezed dynamics with several unexpected outbursts, tense repetitions, «empty» distances, octave duplication, endless frightening emotional contraction create a sense of horror and hopelessness in «The Gallows». In the last play, the mystification is reinforced by the randomness of the tremulous harmonious figures and expansion. dynamics and register coverage, lack of a fulcrum and sudden disappearance instead of the usual end.

All this by the power of artistic musical means implements the psychological presentation of music, making it speaking, figuratively concrete, evoking an understanding of the content depth, where reality is mixed with visions, and carrying a sharp and intense emotional intensity.

Bibliography

1. Бертран А. Гаспар из тьмы: фантазии в манере Рембрандта и Калло. Москва: Наука, 1981. 351 с.

2. Жужгина-Аллахвердян Т.Н. Мифопоэтические мотивы ночи и сновидения во французской романтической литературе. Античність - сучасність (питання філології). 2003. Вип. 3. С. 40-46.

3. Жужгіна-Аллахвердян Т.Н. Стратегема духовного мислення у романтичному міфопоетичному контексті. Гуманітарний вісник: зб. наук. пр. Черкаси : ЧДТУ, 2003. С. 37-39.

4. Жужгина-Аллахвердян Т.Н. Французская романтическая литература 1920-х годов: структура мифопоэтического текста: монография. Днепр: НГУ, 2015. 255 с.

5. Невская О.В. Фортепианные произведения М. Равеля: музыка в диалоге с литературой: дисс. ... канд. искусствоведения: 17.00.02. Москва, 2007. 187 с.

References

1. Bertran A. Gaspar iz tmyi: fantazii v manere Rembrandta i Kallo. [Gaspar from darkness. Fantasies in the manner of Rembrandt and Callo]. Moskva: Nauka, 1981. 351 p. [in Russian].

2. Zhuzhgina-Allahverdyan T.N. Mifopoeticheskie motivyi nochi i snovideniya vo frantsuzskoy romanticheskoy literature. Antichnist - suchasnist (pitannya filologiyi): zb. nauk. pr. Donetsk: Vid-vo DonNU, 2003. Vol. 3. P. 40-46. [in Russian].

3. Zhuzhgina-Allahverdyan T.N. Strategema duhovnogo mislennya u romantichnomu mifopoetichnomu konteksti. Gumanitarniy visnik: zb. nauk. pr. Cherkasi: Vid-vo ChDTU, 2003. P. 37-39 [in Ukrainian].

4. Zhuzhgina-Allahverdyan T.N. Frantsuzskaya romanticheskaya literatura 1920-h gg.: struktura mifopoeticheskogo teksta: monografiya. [French Romantic Literature of the 1920s: The Structure of a Mythopoetic Text: Monograph]. M-vo obrazovaniya i nauki Ukrainy, Nats. Gorn. Un-t. Dnepropetrovsk: NGU, 2015. 255 p. [in Russian].

5. Nevskaya O.V. Fortepiannyie proizvedeniya M. Ravelya: muzyika v dialoge s literaturoy: diss. ... kand. iskusstvovedeniya: 17.00.02. [Piano works by M. Ravel: music in dialogue with literature]. Moskva, 2007, 187 p. [in Russian].

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