英文摘要 |
With the crowning of Nobel Laureate of Literature in 1913, Rabindranth Tagore became the most renowned non-westerner poet among European composers, who found inspiration from his works. Among the many musicians who set his poems into songs, the Polish composer, Karol Szymanowski, is one of the most notable because of his work, The Four Songs, Op. 41 published in 1918. The song cycle has long been neglected by scholars in his own country and it was not until the 1980s when musicologists re-discovered the work because of its innovative compositional techniques. In the 21st century, the work is constantly discussed within the context of“Tagore Reception”; nonetheless, researchers are often misled by misconceptions of this work in previous studies. This article investigates The Four Songs by recontextualizing the work within the background of its composition and publication as well as explicates the relationship between Szymanowski’s selection of Tagore’s poems and“Tagore Reception”among the composer’s contemporaries. The author further analyzes the subtle treatment of the poetic texts and the original sonic structures, and then relates them to the technical ideas of“extended tonality”and the“modes of limited transposition.”In conclusion, this study proposes that The Four Songs should not be simplified as a case in line with the composer’s“Orientalistic oeuvres.”With close readings on the musical vocabularies and poetic texts, this work epitomizes the summit of the Szymanowski’s previous two creative phases and anticipates the composer’s turn to the folklorism in the years to come. Even though Szymanowski himself claimed that he was“indifferent”toward the poetic texts, these songs unveil the dark side of his life during the period of time when he was confronted by extreme difficulties and isolated from the external musical world. |