THE SONOROUS WORLD OF DANTE'S COMMEDIA - A Study Of All Musical References in Inferno, Purgatory and Paradise (original) (raw)
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Textual Cultures, 2022
Dante's works contain a wealth of musical references, and his linguistic treatise, De vulgari eloquentia, is an invaluable source of knowledge regarding the performance practice of contemporary lyric poetry. Despite these indisputable facts, several scholars have cast doubt on Dante's actual musical knowledge, and the extent to which we can interpret his references to musical performance as representing historical practice. This paper explores the issue of musical performance of lyric poems, both by Dante and as represented within Dante's works. It addresses the question of Dante's first-hand experience of melodic delivery of lyric poems, the meanings of musical terms in De vulgari eloquentia, Dante's thoughts on sung performance and its relationship with texts, and every instance in which there is a suggestion that a poem by Dante was sung during his lifetime.
DANTE DECRYPTED: MUSICA UNIVERSALIS IN THE TEXTUAL ARCHITECTURE OF THE 'COMMEDIA'
Bibliotheca Dantesca, 2018
This paper can be downloaded directly from ScholarlyCommons. LINK: https://repository.upenn.edu/handle/20.500.14332/5292 Please visit Bibliotheca Dantesca Annual Journal of Research Studies to DOWNLOAD the whole essay -------------------------------------------------- ABSTRACT: For seven centuries scholars have speculated about the structural design of Dante’s Commedia but remain perplexed by the poem’s comprehensive ar-chitecture. This study undertakes a strictly empirical quantitative analysis of Dante’s magnum opus to address this lacuna. The outcome of this analysis enumerates the correspondence between the foundational rationale of the Commedia’s textual architecture and both physical and metaphysical concepts of Ptolemaic cosmology and Pythagorean principles of harmony and propor-tion as described by Boethius. The poem manifests a musically and mathemat-ically meticulous design conceptualized as musica universalis and expressed as musica instrumentalis that echoes Paschal and Marian plainchant. With an an-alytical synthesis of three components—Beatrice’s mathematical identity, the Trinitary ontology of the terza rima, and the quantitative properties of the Commedia’s canto lengths and their frequency of occurrence—this study de-crypts Dante’s comprehensive architectural design of a poem whose structural harmony continues to be felt by readers today.
A Twist in the Song: Retracing Myth and Dante´s Poem in Heavy Metal Music
The study of music is gathering strength in the academic world, although the scope is still growing, and there are plenty of elements it does not contemplate yet. As a multidisciplinary subject, music has the power of the melody and the power of the lyrics, which, apart from being able to reach any social nook, makes it a gigantic cultural tool with the force of sending any kind of message in a dynamic and effective way. The way in which heavy metal – and especially its symphonic branch – plays with this duality of melody and text, together with the mythological content where its lyrics feed on makes this genre an essential step in this kind of research. This investigation has been focused on symphonic metal as a source of mythological knowledge to build a bridge that links this genre of popular music with one of the most celebrated works of literature of all times: The Divine Comedy: with a double purpose: on the one hand, to demonstrate the importance of this genre within our society and, on the other, to study yet one more field which has not escaped the influence of the Dantesque world.
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Dante and the "Art of Singing in Verse"
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Taking as a point of departure Dante’s reference in the De vulgari eloquentia to an "ars cantandi poetice, this article explores Dante's conception of the relationship between poetry and music along three lines: his writings on the subject in the De vulgari eloquentia (esp. the terms actio/passio, proferere, and modulatio/oda), his interactions with other poets and musicians, and the Trecento musical reception of the Commedia.
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Italian Quarterly, LVIII, 229/230, Special Issue, pp.5-20, 2021
This essay discusses the problem of whether some of Dante’s early rhymes might havebeen set to music or destined to oral performance. The author takes his steps from thenotion of a divorce between poetry and music, as presented by Aurelio Roncaglia in1978, and reassesses the topic, through a close reading and comparative analysis ofDante’s Rime. Grounding the argument in musicological and philological scholarship, theauthor argues that a very few lyrics composed by a young Dante were indeed destinedto be performed musically.
Review of Dante and Music conference
Dante e l'Arte, 2015
Focusing on the modes of representation and performance, Brownlee revealed the meaning in the Commedia of the musical psalms, Charles Martel's quotation of Dante's own Voi che 'ntendendo and Gabriel's circular song to the Virgin. In "Dante Decrypted: musica universalis in the Textual Architecture of the Commedia," Catherine Adoyo created a model of the poem's comprehensive architecture founded on musico-mathematical data that shows the formal design of Dante's poem. Exploring the association between Beatrice and the number nine, the paper demonstrated the Commedia's textual architecture, and both the physical and metaphysical concepts of Ptolemaic cosmology rooted in musica mundana. Helena Phillips-Robins argued in "'[L]or compatire a me': Singing for Dante in Purgatorio XXX-XXXI" that the performance of Psalm 30 in Pg. XXX, 82-99 triggers a spiritual transformation in the pilgrim, melting his frozen fears into contrition. The angels' singing plays a key role in this process, and Phillips-Robins reveals the important connection between music and its social aspects: an audience (the angels but also the readers of the Commedia) is necessary to a performance. Because the angels stop short of "Miserere mei", the readers of Pg. XXX-XXXI are prompted to mentally perform "Miserere mei" as a latent song in the Earthly Paradise. "Stasis and carnal song: the Hag-siren of Purgatorio XIX" by Fiorentina Russo explored the patristic and medieval traditions of the siren as a figure Review of the conference Dante and Music
“Sounds of Inferno”. Epos 27 (2011): 235-248.
In the whole Comedy, but particularly in Inferno, Dante is constantly addressing our sense of hearing. Dante's first impressions of nearly every new circle or ring or character come through the ear. As he proceeds through Hell, he concludes that his eyes are not trustworthy, whereas his ears never let him down. Hell finally reveals itself as the kingdom of voices, of similes based on aural images and of Cantos where the ear functions as the driving force of human actions and relationships. This paper analyzes Inferno in terms of its aural nature and argues in favor of reading Dante's text aloud.