Music, Text and Translation

Description

Expanding the notion of translation, this book specifically focuses on the transferences between music and text. The concept of 'translation' is often limited solely to language transfer. It is, however, a process occurring within and around most forms of artistic expression. Music, considered a language in its own right, often refers to text discourse and other art forms. In translation, this referential relationship must be translated too. How is music affected by text translation? How does music influence the translation of the text it sets? How is the sense of both the text and the music transferred in the translation process? Combining theory with practice, the book questions the process and role translation has to play in a musical context. It provides a range of case studies across interdisciplinary fields. It is the first collection on music in translation that is not restricted to one discipline, including explorations of opera libretti, surtitling, art song, musicals, poetry, painting, sculpture and biography, alongside looking at issues of accessibility.

Helen Julia Minors is Senior Lecturer in Music and Associate Director of the Practice Research Unit at Kingston University, UK.

This volume issues a powerful challenge to everyone who uses the word "translation" in relation to music. The sheer diversity of its essays demonstrates, as no previous book has, the extraordinary intellectual and artistic fertility of bringing together the notions of music and translation - and the dangers of thinking we know what we're talking about. -- Peter Dayan, Professor of Word and Music Studies, The University of Edinburgh, UK This is a very rich and wide-ranging collection which combines real interdisciplinarity with a keen awareness of the current relevance of this topic to Translation Studies. The book is likely to give new energy to an already-lively field of research. Its store of fascinating detail and its blend of professional and critical input, from the world of opera in particular, should also interest admirers of opera, art song and other musical-textual forms. -- Carol O'Sullivan, Senior Lecturer in Italian Language and Translation Theory, University of Portsmouth, UK