Allis, MJ (2014) Bantock and Southey: Musical Otherness and Fatalism in Thalaba the Destroyer. Music and Letters, 95 (1). pp. 39-69. ISSN 0027-4224
Abstract
This article focuses upon the epic poem Thalaba the Destroyer by Robert Southey (1774-1843), and its musical refiguring as an ‘orchestral poem’ of 1899 by the British composer Granville Bantock (1868-1946). Just as the recent reappraisal of Southey’s literary status has focused upon concepts of orientalism and imperialism, this ideological framework can be used to explore Bantock and Southey’s contrasting attitudes towards the East. The complexities highlighted in Southey’s orientalism find a parallel in a range of stylistic layers identified in Bantock’s musical refiguring of ‘otherness’ in Thalaba; these include musical tropes associated with Tchaikovsky, confirming Bantock as a significant figure in the reception of Russian music in Britain at the turn of the twentieth century. Bantock’s approach to musical structure in Thalaba, contextualised via James Hepokoski’s theory of sonata deformation, highlights his experimental approach to the relationship between musical text and paratext, suggesting that Bantock’s status should be reassessed.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | This is a pre-copyedited, author-produced PDF of an article accepted for publication in Music and Letters following peer review. The version of record Allis, MJ (2014) 'Bantock and Southey: musical otherness and fatalism in Thalaba the Destroyer'. Music and Letters, 95 (1). 39 - 69 (31). is available online at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/ml/gct132 |
Keywords: | Granville Bantock; Robert Southey; Tchaikovsky; sonata deformation; exoticism |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Cultures (Leeds) > School of Music (Leeds) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 16 Oct 2014 10:28 |
Last Modified: | 20 Nov 2020 14:55 |
Published Version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/ml/gct132 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Oxford University Press |
Identification Number: | 10.1093/ml/gct132 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:80545 |