Musical Ekphrasis and the Prospects of Intermedial Research

Following the current tendency of extension of analytical approaches in contemporary analysis of art, works musicologists frequently bring in the notion of “intermediality.” Having separated itself from the notion of “intertextuality” (Aage Hansen-Loewe, Ivan Ilyin) “intermediality” joined the group of those tools of art criticism which makes it possible to analyze the interconnection of different “media” in a work of art. “Musical ekphrasis” has been developed as a concept in the musicological works of Sieglinde Bruhn. Through the sequence of actions proposed by Bruhn in her book it becomes possible to systematize the relationships of different media in the realm of one musical composition by the example of Kaija Saariaho’s composition “Frises” for solo violin. The composer’s annotation to the work discloses the mechanism of association in a two-stage interaction: from Bach’s Chaconne for solo violin (as the starting point) to the “Frises” by Odilon Redon and Moritz Escher`s etchings, and onwards to the Baroque musical genres (according to composer, the “carillon, ground, passacaglia, and chaconne”). The notion of the “frise” as a type of painting endowed with a potential for development in time turns out to be a crucial concept. The frise as a concept (rather than a title of a particular musical work) becomes an “umbrella term” for different kinds of musical unfolding establishing a plurality of relationships within the framework of conceptual unity. Keywords: analysis, intermediality, musical ekphrasis, Saariaho, frie

Art · Literature · Musical · Visual Culture and Art Theory