A Musical Analysis of Mythical Thought in the Work of Claude Lévi-Strauss (original) (raw)

2015, Musicologica Olomucensia

This study addresses the music-related aspects of the works of Claude Lévi-Strauss within the context of musicology and with a specific focus placed on his Mythologiques tetralogy. The aim is to define thematic categories for the individual theses within which they are further contextually understood. Selected references to music from Lévi-Strauss’s work were analysed, compared, and interpreted, taking into consideration the theories of structural linguistics and anthropology. The topics chosen for the investigation include the system of relationships between language, mythology, and music, the analysis of myths using musical scores, the thesis that both music and myth are instruments that suppress time, the mythical nature of musical forms, and an analysis of Maurice Ravel’s Bolero. The study takes into account current musicological applications that use the structural analysis of myths, and also critical reflections regarding Lévi-Strauss’s theories. The individual categories were defi ned as structural homologies of myth and music, methodological tools of a metaphorical type to analyse myths using music, and the area commenting on the principles governing the styles and forms in the development of European art music and composed poetry.

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