Muusikalised arendusvotted ja muusikalise mootme konstrueerimine Jaan Malini haalutustes

• Authors: Kotta Kerri

Title variants

EN

ON TECHNIQUES OF MUSICAL DEVELOPMENT AND CONSTRUCTION OF MUSICAL DIMENSION IN THE SOUND POETRY OF JAAN MALIN

• Languages of publication: ET

Abstracts

EN

Sound poetry is an artistic form in which phonetic qualities are usually given preference over the semantic content. In sound poetry, it is especially the rhythm and sound (timbre) of words which is used to build up meaningful structures. Due to this feature, sound poetry resembles the so-called absolute music, i.e., classical instrumental music based on extended and complex forms. In the absolute music, the unfolding of a work’s musical form is simultaneously understood as its content (hence the idea of formal aesthetics that the way of saying is, in a sense, equivalent to what is being said). This is why the analysis of form plays such an important role in the classical music. This article suggests the idea that the tools used in the analysis of formal structures of classical instrumental music can be applied also to sound poetry to uncover its content and meaning. The article concentrates on the sound poetry of Estonian poet and writer Jaan Malin. Malin’s interest in sound poetry was awakened by another Estonian poet Ilmar Laaban, whose works Malin saw as examples. In his works, Malin uses several techniques to achieve timbral continuity of the text, including repetition, fragmentation, and liquidation, timbral “links”, timbral palindromes or retrogrades, transformation of the sound of words, and formal overlaps and interpolations. Occasionally Malin applies metrical structures characterising also the main theme, i.e., the entire musical phrase or group of phrases of a musical work. In Malin’s works, the repetition usually displays a word or a group of words followed by a number of its timbral equivalents, i.e., the words or sound forms (new words invented by the poet having no concrete meaning) that include the same number of syllables, but which are slightly different from the original form. Sometimes longer words or word groups are gradually replaced by shorter words, which creates intensification. Such a phenomenon is referred to as fragmentation in this study. In specific contexts, the fragmentation can be followed by an opposite phenomenon – the summation (shorter words are followed by longer words), which in the analysis of a musical sentence is usually referred to as liquidation. To connect larger formal units, Malin sometimes uses “links”, i.e., the words or word-like fragments having similar sound. The “links” can be direct or indirect. In creating a new “link”, a word is followed by another word that displays the same vowels in the same or reverse order. The first corresponds to the direct, and the second to the indirect “link” accordingly. The latter is also referred to as timbral palindrome or retrograde in this study. Sometimes, there is also a gradual transition from one formal section to another. Such transitions are described as transformations since the dominating words of a new formal section appear as a result of a continuous elaboration of words governing the preceding section. The shortest and simplest way to link two sections is to use a word that functions simultaneously as the last word of the preceding and the first word of a new section. Analogous to music, such a link is referred to as overlap. In addition, Malin in his works occasionally takes the position of a commentator, expressing his opinion on the text. This creates a kind of narrative caesura, interruption of continuity, which can be paralleled with that of interpolation in music analysis. Malin does not use the techniques of musical development for their own sake. Rather, he uses these to enter the dimension of music as he uses the semantic content of words to return to the dimension of language. From the perspective of language, switching between the two dimensions can also be understood as semantic “release” or “recharge” accordingly.

Keywords

EN

language; musical form; sound poetry; techniques of musical development

• Publisher: Folk Belief and Media Group of the Estonian Literary Museum, Estonian Institute of Folklore, EKM Teaduskirjastus
• Journal: Mäetagused
• Year: 2017
• Volume: 68
• Pages: 101-122

Contributors

author

Kotta Kerri

• Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre, Tatari 13, Tallinn 10116, ESTONIA