Espronceda’s The Student of Salamanca and Chopin: Poetry and Musical Structures
The influence of literature upon music was especially marked in the nineteenth century, notably with the vogue of programme music. Rarely is there a movement in the opposite direction, however, such as we find in some of the works of George Sand. Accordingly, this article explores how...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht GmbH & Co. KG
2018-12-01
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| Series: | Romantik |
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| Online Access: | https://vr-elibrary.de/doi/10.14220/jsor.2019.8.1.59 |
| Summary: | The influence of literature upon music was especially marked in the nineteenth century,
notably with the vogue of programme music. Rarely is there a movement in the opposite
direction, however, such as we find in some of the works of George Sand. Accordingly, this
article explores how José de Espronceda’s narrative poem El estudiante de Salamanca
bears striking formal affinities with Chopin’s second piano sonata, the ‘Funeral March’
sonata. Although both artists were resident in exile in Paris at the same time it is highly
improbable that they would have been familiar with each other’s work. Nonetheless, the
article suggests how structural details and devices in Espronceda’s poem betray characteristics
both of Chopin’s sonata and other music of the period in such features as sonataform,
the ‘turbulent’ nocturnes of Chopin, and thematic metamorphosis, a technique often
employed by Liszt. |
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| ISSN: | 2245-599X 2246-2945 |