Music, Text and Translation

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.

Series Editor's Preface Note on Contributors Preface, Michael Chanan (University of Roehampton, UK) Acknowledgements List of Examples List of Figures List of Tables Note on the Text Introduction: Translation in Music Discourse, Helen Julia Minors (Kingston University, UK) PART 1: Translating Text to Music Opera Chapter 1: Tales of the unexpected: opera as a new art of glocalization, Lucile Desblache (University of Roehampton, UK) Chapter 2: Surtitling opera: a surtitler's perspective on making and breaking the rules, Judi Palmer (Royal Opera House, London, UK) Chapter 3: Surtitling opera: a translator's perspective, Jacqueline Page (University of Roehampton, UK and Royal Opera House, London, UK) Chapter 4: Assistance or obstruction: translated text in opera performances Kenneth Chalmers, (The University of Adelaide, Australia) Song Chapter 5: Art Song in translation, Peter Newmark (University of Surrey, UK), completed by Helen Julia Minors (Kingston University, UK) Chapter 6: Purposeful translating: the case of Britten's vocal music, Peter Low (University of Canterbury, Christ Church, New Zealand) Chapter 7: Some like it dubbed: translating Marilyn Monroe, Charlotte Bosseaux (University of Edinburgh, UK) Part 2: Cultural and Intersemiotic Translation Musical Translation Chapter 8: Homophonic translation: sense and sound, Jeff Hilson (University of Roehampton, UK) Chapter 9: Music Translating Visual Images: Erik Satie's Sports et divertissements, Helen Julia Minors (Kingston University, UK) Chapter 10: Translation in the Works of John Cage, Alan Stones (Freelance Composer and Sound Designer, UK) Chapter 11: Music Mediating Sculptor: Avro Pärt's Lamentate, Debbie Moss (Musicologigist and PhD Candidate, Kingston University, UK) Transference and Adaptation of Sense Chapter 12: From Realism to Shnulze and Back: The Songs of Edith Piaf in German, Klaus Kaindl (University of Vienna, Austria), translated by Liselotte Brodbeck (London Metropolitan University, UK) and Jacqueline Page ((University of Roehampton, UK and Royal Opera House, London, UK) Chapter 13: Transcription as Translation: Perspectives from Ethnomusicology, Muriel Swijghuisen Reigersberg (Independent Scholar, Australia) Chapter 14: Difficulty in Translation: Grappling with Ligeti's Musical Metaphors, Mark Shuttleworth (Imperial College London, UK) Chapter 15: Making Music Television Accessible, Mark Harrison Bibliography Index