Strophic Form Research Articles

The Delphic Paeans of Athenaios and Limenios between Old and New Music

Abstract Currently, there are only 64 extant fragments of ancient Greek music, of which the bulk belongs to imperial times. Thus, the musical evidence for ‘New Music’, which had its climax in the second half of the 5th century, is limited. Nevertheless, one important observation is possible: fragments from classical times, which belong to antistrophic compositions, use melodies which do not mirror the prosody of the texts and simply repeat the melody of the strophe in the antistrophe. But all fragments in astrophic form have melodies which follow the prosody of the respective texts closely. This overturn is connected with Melanippides, who in the dithyramb replaced the strophic form with the free astrophic form, to the advantage of musical mimesis. Moreover, the polemics of Old Comedy provide evidence for melodic extravagances which depict highlights of the text. The Delphic Paeans are the heirs to these novelties.

Ю. Следы оригинальных идиостилей в поэтических переводах (стихотворение Т. Венцловы «Памяти поэта. Вариант» в интерпретации И. Бродского и А. Герасимовой)

The article deals with translations of the poem by Tomas Venclova done by Josef Brodsky and Anna Gerasimova (Umka), who are representatives of different periods and styles. The poem In Memory of the Poet. Variation , dedicated to O. Mandelstam, continues the tradition of epitaphs on a poet and is genetically related to the elegy by J. Brodsky Verses on the Death of T. S. Eliot . Analysis of the target text, comparison with the Lithuanian original and Brodsky’s verses of different years ( Minuet (Sketch) , Aqua vita nuova, etc.) made it possible to discover which features characteristic of his own poems were used by J. Brodsky in the translation, what interpretation the images of the source text received, being supplemented by the metaphorical character of the “big poem” – Brodsky’s genre form based on variations and repetitions, associative relations of motifs and images. The translation by A. Gerasimova is more precise, the poetic language is simplified. The translator reduced the number of expanded metaphors and epithets. The language of her own poems is also lapidary. They are mostly eight-verse, two- and three-quatrain compositions that are distinguished by the clarity of language, imagery, syntax, strophic form, accuracy of rhyme. Josef Brodsky and Anna Gerasimova conveyed the poetological motif of the original in accordance with their own creative attitudes: the idea of the power of a word is emphasized by J. Brodsky, the rejection of the poet’s high mission determines the poetics of the translation by A. Gerasimova. The text by Tomas Venclova in translation by two poets with different stylistic strategies found its middle position, balancing between semantic complexity and simplicity of the poetic language.

Traditional winter-time melodies in the upper Samara river basin

For the first time, the winter calendar tunes of the local ethno-music tradition of the upper reaches of the Samara River in historical and ethnographic context are considered in detail. Kolyadky and schedrivky – in the total absence of other calendar genres – today represent the oldest layer of local musical folklore in the repertoire of local tradition respondents. The material for publication was the samples of the corresponding genres, recorded by the author as part of the expeditions of the Laborato-ry of Folklore and Ethnography at M. Glinka Dnipropetrovsk Academy of Music in the years 2016–2017 from the Petropav-lovsk district of the Dnepropetrovsk region, as well as songs found in printed and archival sources. These works are systema-tized from different points of view: their performers age, rhythmic structure, compositional and tune features. According to these indicators, statistical tables and maps of the geographical distribution of winter ritual folk songs found in the research ar-ea were created. It was found out that the tunes of the children's repertoire (one- or two-element structures of the primitive rhythmic and melodic structure) are recorded practically in every investigated settlement, which allows us to draw the conclu-sion about the wide area of their existence. The repertoire of adults, mainly schedrivky, is represented by strophic forms with re-frains and reveals musical and stylistic features that approximate local generosity to cantilever singing forms: solemn character of performance at a moderate or slow tempo, long length, wide tunes, active rhythmic crushing of syllables, polyphonic tex-ture, etc. The distribution of such structures in the study area turned out to be uneven.

AaBBB: The Strophic Form of Fernan Rodriguez de Calheiros 7

The refrain of a cantiga d’amigo by Fernan Rodriguez Calheiros (B 632/V 233), heretofore misunderstood as consisting of five verses, should be taken as a 3-verse refrain with two internal rhymes in the middle verse, conforming to the strophic form aaBBB. This analysis is confirmed by two virtuoso features: the middle verse of the BBB refrain scans longer than the outer ones but corresponds to the verses of the distich; and the text constitutes an example of a BBB refrain where the third verse repeats the first.

The Poetry of the Lord’s Prayer: A Study in Poetic Device

This study argues the Lord's Prayer (Matt 6:9-13) belongs to the tradition of ancient Jewish religious poetry, as evidenced by its use in every sentence of multiple, coordinated poetic figures that were characteristic of the tradition and determinative of its strophic form. The study defines each device using the terms and conceptual categories of the ancient world and identifies examples from poetic texts in both the Hebrew Bible and the Septuagint. The study then shows the concentrated use of these same devices in every line of the prayer, as well as the strophic form that emerges from this usage. The devices identified are homoeoteleuton, homoeokatarkton, antistrophe, epanaphora, anadiplosis, polyptoton, antithesis, parisosis, and paronomasia. These devices work together to shape the prayer into two stanzas, each a tripartite petition expressed in tricolon form. The study concludes with English translations that attempt to capture both the devices and their resultant stichometry.(ProQuest: ... denotes non-US-ASCII text omitted.)Scholarship has given some attention in the past to the poetic dimensions of the Lord's Prayer (Matt 6:9-13). Several scholars have argued for a poetic original in Aramaic or Hebrew.1 Some have interpreted the prayer in translation as a poem.2 A few have argued that the final, Matthean form should be considered poetry.3 Generally, however, commentators make no mention of the prayer as a poem,4 and translators ignore or efface its poetic qualities.5This study argues that the Lord's Prayer employs in every line a number of coordinated poetic devices characteristic of poetry in both the Hebrew Bible and the Septuagint. These devices, through their symmetries of sound, sense, and structure, lend the prayer a discernible strophic form. Given the thematic and liturgical ties that the prayer obviously shares with ancient Jewish poetry, this form suggests that the prayer is a poem belonging to the Jewish religious literary tradition.6I. The Devices in Ancient Jewish PoetryTo illustrate the use of these devices in the Lord's Prayer, I first examine their use in ancient Jewish poetry. In the survey that follows, I define each device using the terms and conceptual categories of ancient Hellenistic literary theory,7 and I highlight examples of each device from poetic texts in both the Hebrew Bible and the Septuagint.8 I limit my survey to texts identified in previous scholarship as poetry9 and to those devices that appear in the Lord's Prayer: homoeoteleuton, homoeokatarkton, antistrophe, epanaphora, anadiplosis, polyptoton, antithesis, parisosis, and paronomasia.1. HomoeoteleutonHomoeoteleuton is similarity of sound at the conclusion of affiliated cola, usually in the concluding syllable(s) of the concluding word(s).10...For the Lord is our judge,the Lord is our ruler,the Lord is our king;he will save us. (Isa 33:22)...Ah, Assyria, the rod of my anger-The club in their hands is my fury. (Isa 10:5)...When I was a son with my father,tender, and my mother's favorite. (Prov 4:3)See also Job 10:8b-12; 21:14-15a; 31:25; Pss 15:1; 18:3, 15; 123:3ab, 4bc; Prov 4:5, 6, 8; Nah 1:2; 2:1.11...Justice and judgment are the establishment of your throne:mercy and truth shall go before your face. (LXX Ps 88:15)...They go up to the heavens,and go down to the depths;their soul melts because of troubles. (LXX 106:26)...For I also was a son obedient to my father,and loved in the sight of my mother. (LXX Prov 4:3)See also LXX Job 40:8, 14; Pss 1:2; 2:11; 35:1; 77:4; 150:2; Prov 4:2; Eccl 10:9; Isa 40:4, 12; Nah 1:10; 2:10; 3:2.122. HomoeokatarktonHomoeokatarkton is similarity of sound at the beginning of affiliated cola, usually in the concluding syllable(s) of the opening word(s).13...I am like an owl of the wilderness,like a little owl of the waste places. …

Strophic Modification in Songs by Amy Beach

American composer Amy Beach wrote over a hundred art songs, many of which comprise compelling hybrid formal designs that fuse principles of modified strophic form with other formal schemes. In order to explore form in Beach’s art songs that resist simple classification, I develop a new model for interpreting song form that situates songs based on the nature of recurring material, from strophic (maximal recurring material) to through-composed (minimal recurring material). Analyses of “Within Thy Heart” (op. 29, no. 1) and “Forgotten” (op. 41, no. 3) demonstrate additions to and departures from strophic design. An analysis of “Ah, Love, but a Day!” (op. 44, no. 2) highlights complex principles of strophic modification in which the melody preserves strophic structure but the harmony and texture depart from strophic design. Finally, analyses of “Sweetheart, Sigh No More” (op. 14, no. 3) and “Wind o’ the Westland” (op. 77, no. 2) explore blurred boundaries and quasi-parallel constructions within sectional formal designs.

Formal negativities, breakthroughs, ruptures and continuities in the music of Modest Mouse

AbstractIndie-rock band Modest Mouse's earliest music connects aphoristic fragments into uniquely disjointed narratives that resist standard formal categorisation. The band's homespun narratives make us process dramatic interactions between drastically opposed musical paradigms as we search for new formal schema by which to classify them. This, I argue, is one answer to the ‘negative dialectic’ that Adorno thought was missing in popular music. In this paper I analyse three songs in particular depth, extending a methodology borrowed from the ‘classical tradition’ that extends Edward T. Cone's ‘stratification’ analyses of Igor Stravinsky. In Modest Mouse's later work, which seemingly signals a return to simpler strophic song forms, this dialectic is spread across entire albums such asGood News for People Who Love Bad News;but even in individual songs, despite a simplistic façade, my ‘stratification graphs’ reveal deep dialectical negativities.

Problems of Translation Theory and Practice: Original and Translated Text Equivalence

The conceptual approach to the translation phenomenon is viewed as a deep integration of national cultures, and their interactions. Literary translation should be considered in the context of literary interaction as a part of multi-ethnic factor. Translation Studies in Kazakhstan has had many directions and common issues of prose, poetry and drama, the specifics of the translation process, and the place of translation studies in multicultural literary process has become the subject of translation studies. Literary translation schools reflect the evolution of transferability categories and contain modern concept of communicative equivalence of the original and the translated texts as a norm of translation accuracy. Modern communicative approach to translation is due to the facts of cross-language communication and translation dominants. Expansion of the original and the translated text communicative equivalence should be tolerant to the type of the receiving audience. The problem of interlinear translation was the object of translators’ attention for a long time. So the current study is aimed at several purposes as:•establishment of translation freedom and the problems of interlinear translation.•linguistic and extra-linguistic factor synthesis (including cultural, psychological, etc.)•classification of translation approaches•establishing criteria for translation accuracyIn the result of qualitative and contrastive analysis we have found out that any text is translatable due to the general principles of translation: the requirement to reproduce the original strophic form, find similar rhythmic forms, maintain the historical and national style.

Minnesang diesseits des Frauendienstes und der Kanzonenstrophe

AbstractIn this paper, the author contests Helmut de Boor’s widespread labelling of the early Minnesang verses as the ›Danubian tradition‹ by revealing his unfortunate blending of topographical, textual, formal and genre-related aspects. The argument is based on a selection of early stanzas that have not absorbed Franco-Provençal influences such as the strophic form of the canzone or the idea of love service. In the manuscript tradition, some of these in the first place anonymous verses have been attributed to

Performing the Ineffable: Poem, Gesture and Performance in Debussy’s ‘Éventail’

Drawing on Peter Kivy’s recent work on reading as performance and Vladimir Jankélévitch’s analysis of meaningful silence in Debussy, this essay seeks to demonstrate that the composer’s concentration on musical gesture merges with Mallarmé’s poetic exploration of directionless movement in ‘Autre Éventail’ in order to get beyond the idea of progression in favour of alternative models of artistic expression that, via direct address, invite readers or listeners to participate in the act of establishing coherent experience from the sounds and words of a song that relies on gesture, silence and suggestion rather than traditional guideposts such as strophic form or harmonic prolongation and tonal resolution to guide the listener.

The Structure, Function, and Genesis of the Prechorus

Prechoruses emerged in the mid-1960s as verse-chorus and strophic forms converged upon a four-part formal disposition that Everett (1999) calls “statement, restatement, departure, and conclusion,” or srdc. This study traces the expansion of the srdc scheme from its compact deployment in strophes to expanded iterations that approximate verse-chorus form.

The Poetics of Peace: Erotic Reconciliation in the Cantigas d'amigo

The Poetics of Peace:Erotic Reconciliation in the Cantigas d'amigo Rip Cohen To speak about the poetics of the cantigas d'amigo is to confront a swamp of conceptual confusion.1 It would be best to clear up some sources of this confusion before proceeding to the pragmatics of amorous reconciliation, whose elucidation is my principal aim here. First, the question of lyric. For the ancient Greeks and Romans, lyric was a category of form and meant strophic song (Halporn, Ostwald and Rosenmeyer 16, 79-81); it had nothing to do with theme. No ancient poet or theorist would have thought the "lyric I" a necessary component of lyric poetry. The introspective and emoting I, which may stem from Renaissance [End Page 95] misreadings of non-lyric ancient poetry (e.g., Roman elegy), was enshrined by the Romantics and has held sway in critical theory ever since. But the Galician-Portuguese cantigas are lyric in the strict formal sense, since they are strophic songs (Cohen, "Cantar Igual"), so it would be misguided to consider emotion or introspection a distinguishing component of their lyric-ness — or even a necessary one: the cantigas d'escarnho e maldizer are formally no less lyric than the other two secular genres (cantigas d'amigo and cantigas d'amor), yet emotional introspection is hardly one of their distinctive features.2 There has also been confusion regarding an alleged opposition between dramatic and narrative. Dramatic is a direct mode of mimesis: "Come!"; narrative, an indirect mode: "She told him to come" (Aristotle, Poetica 1450a). Since nearly all cantigas d'amigo use direct and indirect mimesis, they are lyric in form and dramatic/narrative in mode — with the narrated past usually subordinate to the present drama. In brief, the cantigas d'amigo are an erotic-poetic genre characterized by a tendency toward simple strophic forms and rhyme systems, almost always with refrain (Cohen, "In the Beginning"); a rhetoric of repetition with variation (Lang lxxx, lxxxvii); strictly regulated combinatory possibilities of speaker and addressee within a world of mainly feminine discourse, and a generous set of actions (Cohen and Parkinson 26-27, 37-39). Of these features, form and rhetoric have been given more attention than pragmatics. And of the pragmatic components —personae, situation and action/emotion— action has been most neglected. This is not surprising: it is relatively easy to analyze form and rhetoric (in the limited sense of figures of speech), identify personae, sketch the scene and say if the girl is happy or sad. But what are the kinds of action? Where do we look for an action? By which criteria do we identify one? How do we distinguish one kind of action from another? Can theory provide an answer? The reigning theoretical approach to this genre is Giuseppe Tavani's notion of campi semici, first presented in 1980 [End Page 96] ("La poesia lirica"), most recently in 2002 (Trovadores e jograis 190-231). This theory is accepted by Mercedes Brea and Pilar Lorenzo Gradin (59-94), who timidly add a mish-mash of "modalities" (an undefined term) (60, 215-67) to Tavani's fields. Tavani's campi semici for the cantiga d'amigo are: love's harmony, unrequited love, the mother's prohibition (that the girl not see the boy) and other obstacles, praise, and landscape (204-05). He sees a cantiga d'amigo as a concoction of varying amounts of thematic ingredients (204-31).3 Although he sometimes describes the action of individual songs, no place is granted to action in his conception of the genre.4 Aristotle, who thought action the object of all kinds of mimesis, would not have approved (Poetica 1447a -1448a). Tavani's theory has dominated a field not rife with daring reassessments.5 But no superhuman valor is required for a different approach. Henry R. Lang, working from scratch, did better in 1894: he describes the action of individual cantigas d'amigo with a precision rarely equaled (lxvi-lxxiv). Reading the headnotes in monographic editions and descriptions of songs in the Dicionário da literatura medieval galega e portuguesa (Lanciani and Tavani), one seldom finds accuracy. And accurate descriptions of action in individual songs only provide...

Die Strophenformen der Lyrik Heinrichs von Veldeke und Frankreich

With respect to form and content Heinrich von Veldeke's lyric is permeated with the conventions of the Romance poetry. On the basis of our computer program ›Anastrof‹ we study Veldeke's strophic forms with regard to the troubadours and trouvères.

The songs of a Northern Ostyak woman

In 1980 Eva Schmidt, linguist and folklorist recorded 11 Ostyak songs from Anna Nikitichna Liskova, a Sherkal Ostyak woman. The songs are structured in lines, either two-seeded or threeseeded. The characteristics found during the 28 years of studying Ostyak songs, can be found in them: we can mention first of all fluctuating pitch and the structure of the melody and text. Respecting the melody, the songs of Anna Liskova represent a transition towards more developed, fixed, strophic forms: the lines mostly alternate regularly. The texts do not show such a transition; the archaic forms of Ostyak song creation are applied in them even when the topic is not archaic. This is an indication that the Ostyak songs may survive in a changed environment, under changed conditions.

<i>Gattungsinterferenzen in der späten Heldendichtung</i> (review)

Reviewed by: Gattungsinterferenzen in der späten Heldendichtung Olga V. Trokhimenko Gattungsinterferenzen in der späten Heldendichtung. By Sonja Kerth. Wiesbaden: Reichert Verlag, 2008. Pp. 463. EUR 65. "Kein Text ist verständlich ohne das Universum der Texte, die man Kultur nennt" (p. 17): Sonja Kerth's Habilitationsschrift on generic interferences (Gattungsinterferenzen) in late medieval German heroic epic strongly attests the validity of this statement. Following in the footsteps of Mikhail Bakhtin, Julia Kristeva, Gérard Genette, and Renate Lachmann, Kerth explores the workings of intertextuality in premodern works, particularly those that seem to push the boundaries of their genre. Undertaking any comprehensive analysis of the late heroic epic is no feeble deed. The German Middle Ages are known for not only their incredible amount of courtly romances, but also tales inspired by a distant Germanic past—the time of the great migrations and of the fifth-century rulers Theodoric the Great (MHG Dietrich von Bern), Odoacer (MHG Ermanarich), Attila (MHG Etzel), and their retainers. Even without Kudrun, the most studied representative of this type, Kerth had to face an enormous corpus of the post-Nibelungenlied, thirteenth- and fourteenth-century texts, many of which exist in multiple manuscript witnesses. The result is a 377 page-long study of both historical and mythical (or legendary) epics, followed by indices and a truly extensive bibliography. The later heroic epics are known to present a mixture of influences, sharing with their predecessors, the Hildebrandslied and the Nibelungenlied, their content, their ethos, and oftentimes their strophic form. Yet as a product of high-medieval courtly society, they also reflect the thirteenth-century literary tastes and the contemporaneous fascination with love service, knightly adventures, and the fantastic. Kerth's work brings to light the scope and nature of this hybridization. Besides the sheer number of available texts, the difficulty of her undertaking lies in the diversity of the late heroic epics and in the lack of an ideal model for what could be seen as the "archetypal heroic" (p. 11). The Nibelungenlied, the major referent text for her later poems, already displays the uneasy coexistence of the heroic and the courtly. It is no wonder then that the later epics would reveal what Kerth calls "an epic hero on Arthurian tracks" (ein heldenepischer Recke auf arthurischen Pfaden, p. 1). One may thus wonder how to approach such hybrid texts: as mere variants of Arthurian romance or as successors to the heroic poetry of old. Kerth's work questions the usefulness and absoluteness of the dichotomy "the heroic" vs. "the romance" for late heroic literature and casts doubt on attempts to confine these texts to strict generic boundaries. A more productive approach, she claims, would be to study the interplay of different elements, to approach the heroic epic as a dialogue between texts, i.e., as intertext. Impressive in its scope, the study falls into two halves, theoretical and methodological foundations (chs. 1–2) and their practical applications (chs. 3–6). The introduction (or ch. 1) contains two thoroughgoing surveys of scholarship on intertextuality and Middle High German heroic epic. Chapter 2 presents Kerth's methodology, the three types of intertextual references that she traces across the whole corpus of Dietrich-epics in subsequent chapters: Einzelreferenzen (references to specific, individual texts in the form of quotations, borrowings, and motifs); Systemreferenzen (architextuality, more general or transcendent categories such as types of discourse and literary genres); and finally, Wissensreferenzen (preexisting common cultural knowledge, on the recognition of which the compilers or redactors of the individual texts rely, such as, for example, Siegfried's impenetrable skin or Dietrich's fire breath). Having set out her categories, Kerth methodically [End Page 103] applies them to her texts, moving from the historical Dietrich-epic (Dietrichs Flucht, Alpharts Tod, and Rabenschlacht in chapter 3) towards more and more romance-like mythical poems (aventiurehafte Epen), such as Virginal, three manuscript witnesses of the Eckenlied, four versions of Laurin, Goldemar, and Wunderer in chapter 4; Biterolf und Dietleib in chapter 5; and concluding with the Ortnit/Wolfdietrich-complex in chapter 6. As Kerth painstakingly demonstrates, the boundaries of this genre are indeed highly permeable: in addition to the oral tradition and the Nibelungenlied, one...

The Southern Sardinian Tradition of the Mutetu Longu : A Functional Analysis

The Southern Sardinian Tradition of the Mutetu Longu:A Functional Analysis Paulu Zedda (bio) Click for larger view View full resolution Paulu Zedda in a public performance. Photo by Robertu Corona. All photos used by permission. Saludi e gratzias. First of all I would like to thank the University of Missouri and John Foley for giving me the opportunity to contribute to the knowledge of oral tradition, and for permitting me to present the poetic art of my homeland under the distinguished name of two scholars who are considered, by most of the world, to be the founders of the modern conception of oral poetry. The studies carried out by Milman Parry and Albert Lord redefined the criteria and principles underlying the creation and transmission of oral poetry in a pre-literary age. Progress into the understanding of its internal workings has enabled us to dispel doubts regarding the origin of several ancient texts that have survived in written form (Foley 2002), and to understand not only what, but also "how," they mean. It is mostly thanks to the Center for Studies in Oral Tradition (http://www.oraltradition.org/) and the journal Oral Tradition (http://www.journal.oraltradition.org/) that this field of research has progressively increased in both quantity and quality, gaining respectability on a par with the most prestigious scientific disciplines. A renewed interest has drawn attention and uncovered new ways of conducting research into the unlimited range of oral poetry, which goes far beyond the range of epic poetry where Parry and Lord initially focused their attention. This new awareness, further increased by Walter Ong and John Foley, has not only given us a wider perspective on all the various forms of verbal art, but also a more profound comprehension of the principles that govern our society and its languages. I shall consider in this paper the kind of oral poetry that was called cantus amoebaeus1 by the Romans, based upon a poetic joust between two or more poets who improvise their verse in search of public approval. This is, and has been, a widespread genre in various separate cultures, and it has to be considered a unique chapter within the entirety of the oral poetic tradition. Some of the styles adopted in this specific form of oral poetry are so common and recurrent that they seem to derive more from an innate need in people than from their cultural ducation, and they can be considered universal to this genre.2 Different traditions are, however, distinguished by many other characteristics that define their extremely lively, varied, and versatile nature. Rather than merely referring to my experience as a faculty member at the University of Cagliari, the main aim of my work is to recount the firsthand experiences of a cantadori (performer of improvised sung poetry), such as I am, and to describe the oral tradition of the mutetu longu, this Sardinian poetic form to which I belong. My observations, my considerations, the explanations and evaluations I offer, notwithstanding the textual references, spring mainly from my hands-on experience gained while performing, and moreover from contact I have had with improvisers belonging to other extemporaneous traditions.3 This study is divided into two sections: the first basically describes the Sardinian mutetu longu, with particular attention to the structure of the strophic forms; the second reflects, drawing also on external comparisons, upon some of the aspects that strongly characterize it. In addition, this latter section discusses the way this complex phenomenon works and how it achieves its inner balance. I shall also evaluate the functional reasons behind the particular metrical structure (which reaches high levels of formal complexity and redundancy), the relevance of memory in the elaboration of the poetic text, and the flow of time and its perception. Part I: The Mutetu Longu Click for larger view View full resolution Map of southern Europe delineating Sardinia. Elaborated by the author. Politically, Sardinia has belonged to Italy since 1861 and currently has 1,660,000 inhabitants.4 Recent legislation meant that Sardinia was declared officially bilingual in 1997.5 Italian and Sardinian are the two official languages.6 A recent survey, carried out by the Sardinian Regional Council...

Œuvres complètes , Vol. I: Eûmes en rime, première partie: Neuf Livres des Poemes by Jean-Antoine de Baïf (review)

MLRy 99.1, 2004 191 in Renaissance tragedy, arguing that the depiction of the misfortunes of the great had a dual role, both specular and oracular, whereby imitation of the past was also prophecy ofthe future; Laurence Giavarini contributes a complex discussion of mimesis in the dramatic pastoral between 1607 and 1635; Helene Visentin shows how the pre? sentation of supernatural figures in prologues testifies to an aesthetic shift between the period of Jodelle and the 1630s, during which verbal evocations painting a vivid picture (ie spectacle du discours') gave way to stage spectacle achieved by the use of machinery; finally,in the volume's most substantial piece, Guy Spielmann addresses theoretical questions concerning the dichotomy between 'theatre' and 'spectacle', the latter exemplified here by the plethora of minor genres and 'irregular' productions which flourished in the last third of the seventeenth century. Spielmann argues that, whereas literary theatre is characterized by a narrative structure, a differentsystem of patterning, 'une syntaxe fondamentale spectaculaire' or 'syntaxe de l'effet', informs the dramatic output which has been marginalized by critics. The contributions by Spielmann and Visentin go some way towards justifying the title of this volume (which, given the name of the series, presumably derives from an academic confer? ence, but we are not told which). Overall, these essays, like Aristotle's Poetics, are as much concerned with Speech as with Spectacle. No matter. Though varied in length and approach, they are well informed and stimulating, and will be read with profitby specialists of early French theatre. University of Liverpool Alan Howe (Euvres completes, Vol. i: Euvres en rime,premiere partie: Neuf Livres des Poemes. By Jean-Antoine de Baif. Ed. by Jean Vignes, Guy Demerson, Perrine GalandHallyn , Anne-Pascale Pouey-Mounou, and Daniel Menager. (Textes de la Renaissance, 54) Paris: Champion. 2002. 1009 pp. ?75. ISBN 2-7453-0683-9. This represents the firstfruitsof the labours of a team of scholars working under the direction of Jean Vignes on an ambitious undertaking, the long-awaited nine-volume critical edition of Baif's complete surviving works, some hitherto unpublished. The Neuf Livres des Poemes were published in 1573 as volume 1 of the four-part Euvres en rime,since when the only edition has been that of Charles Marty-Laveaux (vol. 11 of Euvres en rime, 5 vols (Paris: Lemerre, 1881-90; repr. Geneva: Slatkine. 1966)), which has minimal annotation. After briefly outlining the principles governing the present project, Vignes chronicles Baif's life in relation to his work. There follow an introduction to the Euvres en rimeand one to the Poemes themselves, the formerlargely devoted to the organization of the collection, the latter dealing with structure within the Poemes, as well as chronology, the varied genres included, Bai'f's techniques of adapting his sources, and, most interestingly,his view of the Orphic role of the poet. A brief account is given ofthe versification and strophic forms; however, an evaluation of the poetic qualities would have been a welcome addition. The text is based on the 1573 publication, retaining the original spelling, but variant readings are given in the case of poems that had been previously published. One significant change has been made: the dedication to Charles IX ('Au Roy') has been incorporated into the firstbook of the Poemes, 'par souci de simplicite' (p. 529), despite the fact that in the original edition it is clearly separated from the Poemes and in fact functions as a preface to the Euvres en rime as a whole. This solution seems to me unsatisfactory as it obscures the status of the poem. That said, the critical apparatus is thorough and erudite. The individual books of the collection have been assigned to differenteditors, which leads to some unevenness in the style of annotation. For Book I, Guy Demerson, we are told (p. 13), 'a accepte de remanier son edition du Premier Livre des Poemes (Presses 192 Reviews Universitaires de Grenoble, 1975)'. This has involved replacing the orthography ofthe version of 'Le Premier des Meteores' printed in 1567 by that of 1573, but otherwise, apart from the mention of a certain number of more recent critical works, there has been little revision. The notes to this...

Spanish, Portuguese, and Neo-Latin Poetry Written and/or Published by Seventeenth-, Eighteenth-, and Nineteenth-Century Sephardim from Hamburg and Frankfurt (2)

The present study is the second in a three-part series (the first appearing in Sefarad 59 [1999] pp. 3-42; the third being in press) on the phenomenon of Neo- Latin and Romance-Language —Spanish and Portuguese— poetry of the Sephardim in Hamburg and Frankfurt am Main from the early seventeenth to the midnineteenth centuries. Our collection expands the original poetic corpus from twenty-eight to forty-five works. In an historical and critical Introduction to the poems, the authors distinguish the creative genius of a new type of literary discourse, one which meshes neo-classical strophic forms with inspiration from Sephardic orthodox Judaism as it was practiced in the Dutch Netherlands, biblical events and Jewish philosophical constructs. In addition to the evaluation and edition of the poems and, in the cases of Neo-Latin works, their translation to English, the Introduction includes an argument for substantiating book printing of Sephardic-authored books in Frankfurt am Main during the period 1614-1634 as well as sporadically throughout the remainder of the seventeenth century.

Paul Robinson. Ludwig van Beethoven: Fidelio. Cambridge Opera Handbooks. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996. xi, 191 pp. ISBN 0-521-45852-8 (hardcover)

Paul Robinson. Ludwig van Beethoven: Fidelio. Cambridge Opera Handbooks. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996. xi, 191 pp. ISBN 0-521-45852-8 (hardcover). An article from journal Canadian University Music Review / Revue de musique des universités canadiennes (Volume 20, Number 1, 1999, pp. 1-171), on Érudit.

The Strophic Form in Literary Criticism and Musical Analysis: Problems in Theory and Application

The Strophic Form in Literary Criticism and Musical Analysis: Problems in Theory and Application