Uri Caine's Mahler Project As Intertraditional Musical Translation
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FOREIGNIZING MAHLER: URI CAINE’S MAHLER PROJECT AS INTERTRADITIONAL MUSICAL TRANSLATION J. Cole Ritchie Dissertation Prepared for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY UNIVERSITY OF NORTH TEXAS August 2015 APPROVED: Margaret Notley, Major Professor John Murphy, Committee Member Bernardo Illari, Committee Member Benjamin Brand, Committee Member Frank Heidlberger, Chair of the Department of Music History, Theory, and Ethnomusicology James C. Scott, Dean of College of Music Costas Tsatsoulis, Interim Dean of the Toulouse Graduate School Ritchie, J. Cole. Foreignizing Mahler: Uri Caine’s Mahler Project as Intertraditional Musical Translation. Doctor of Philosophy (Musicology), August 2015, 233 pp., 12 tables, 2 figures, 22 musical examples, references, 155 titles. The customary way to create jazz arrangements of the Western classical canon— informally called swingin’-the-classics—adapts the original composition to jazz conventions. Uri Caine (b.1956) has devised an alternative approach, most notably in his work with compositions by Gustav Mahler. He refracts Mahler’s compositions through an eclectic array of musical performance styles while also eschewing the use of traditional jazz structures in favor of stricter adherence to formal ideas in the original score than is usual in a jazz arrangement. These elements and the manner in which Caine incorporates them in his Mahler arrangements closely parallel the practices of a translator who chooses to create a “foreignizing” literary translation. The 19th-century philosopher and translation theorist Friedrich Schleiermacher explained that in a foreignizing translation “the translator leaves the writer alone as much as possible and moves the reader toward the writer.” Foreignizing translations accentuate the otherness of the original work, approximating the foreign text’s form and syntax in the receiving language and using an uncommon, heterogeneous vocabulary. The resulting translations, which challenge readers with their frequent defiance of the conventions of the receiving linguistic culture, create literal, exaggerated readings that better convey authors’ characteristic use of their own languages for a new audience. My study of Caine’s music—which includes a survey of previously unavailable manuscripts and an exploration of selected arrangements using an analytical method designed to address the qualities in music that parallel foreignizing translation—contextualizes Caine’s modifications to Mahler’s compositions to generate intertextual readings that simultaneously highlight the ways that Mahler was innovative within his own tradition. Copyright 2015 by J. Cole Ritchie ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to briefly express my appreciation to the people who made this dissertation possible. Thank you to my dissertation committee: Drs. Margaret Notley, John Murphy, Bernardo Illari, and Benjamin Brand. I am grateful for your thoughts, suggestions, and guidance throughout my time at the University of North Texas and during the development of this project. I especially wish to acknowledge my primary adviser Dr. Notley for her constant support and for committing countless hours to helping me revise and refine my ideas. Thank you to Uri Caine for inspiring my work, permitting me access to his personal documents, and for his willingness to take the time out of his busy schedule to respond to my questions. I wish to thank my friends and colleagues for helping me cope with the stresses of the doctoral process and for always being willing to put up with me. Finally, without the support of my parents, Larry and Vicki Ritchie, I could never have pursed this degree. I thank you most of all. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ........................................................................................................... iii LIST OF TABLES ..........................................................................................................................v LIST OF FIGURES ....................................................................................................................... vi LIST OF MUSICAL EXAMPLES ............................................................................................... vii CHAPTER 1 – INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................1 CHAPTER 2 – CAINE IN CONTEXT .........................................................................................12 CHAPTER 3 – THE MAHLER PROJECT MANUSCRIPTS ......................................................48 CHAPTER 4 – TRANSLATION AS A METAPHOR FOR INTERTRADITIONAL SYNTHESIS ......................................................................................................................82 CHAPTER 5 – ANALYZING THE MAHLER PROJECT ........................................................117 CHAPTER 6 – INTERPRETING THE TEXT THROUGH ORCHESTRATIONAL AND STYLISTIC MEANS.......................................................................................................146 CHAPTER 7 – DIONYSIAN READINGS OF “THE DRUNKARD IN SPRING” ..................178 CHAPTER 8 – CONCLUSION ..................................................................................................207 APPENDIX A – ANALYTICAL TERMINOLOGY REFERENCE SHEET ...........................212 APPENDIX B – DISCOGRAPHY ..............................................................................................215 BIBLIOGRAPHY ........................................................................................................................222 iv LIST OF TABLES Page Table 2.1 The Contents of the Mahler Project Manuscript Collection ..........................................50 Table 4.1 Model for the Analysis of Caine’s Transcriptions .......................................................124 Table 4.2 Analysis of “Symphony no. 5, Funeral March,” Urlicht/Primal Light .......................139 Table 5.1 Analysis of “I often think they have merely gone out!” Urlicht/Primal Light ............147 Table 5.2 Text and Translation of “Lied des Verfolgten im Turm” ........................................ 151-2 Table 5.3 Analysis of “Song of the Prisoner in the Tower,” Dark Flame ............................... 153-4 Table 5.4 Analysis of “Shining Trumpets,” Dark Flame ............................................................164 Table 5.5 Epitext for “Shining Trumpets,” Liner Notes, Dark Flame ........................................167 Table 5.6 Text, Translation, and Division of the Text by Speaker in “Wo die schönen Trompeten blasen” ..............................................................................170 Table 6.1 Analysis of “The Drunkard in Spring,” Urlicht/Primal Light ............................. 179-180 Table 6.2 Text and Translation of “Der Trunkene im Frühling” .................................................187 Table 6.3 Syntagmatic Structure of “The Drunkard in Spring,” Divided by Strophe .................197 v LIST OF FIGURES Page Figure 1.1 Ensemble Connections of Significant Downtown Scene Recordings and Uri Caine’s Urlicht/Primal Light ................................................................................29 Figure 4.1 The Syntagmatic/Paradigmatic Axis ..........................................................................123 vi LIST OF MUSICAL EXAMPLES Page Example 1 Mahler, Symphony no.1, Movement I, Oboe, mm. 7-9 ................................................6 Example 1.1 Mahler, “Der Abschied,” Das Lied von der Erde, Oboe, mm. 3-4 ..........................43 Example 2.1 Caine, Manuscript M18A, “Rhinelegend,” Dark Flame, mm. 1-8 ...........................58 Example 2.2 Mahler, “Rheinlegendchen,” Des Knaben Wunderhorn, mm. 1-8 ...........................59 Example 2.3 Mahler, “Lob des hohen Verstands,” Des Knaben Wunderhorn, mm. 1-5 ..............61 Example 2.4 Caine, Manuscript M5A, “In Praise of Lofty Judgement,” Dark Flame, mm. 1-5 .......................................................................................................62 Example 2.5 Mahler, “Der Trunkene im Frühling,” Das Lied von der Erde, mm. 80-85 .............68 Example 2.6 Schoenberg/Riehn, “Der Trunkene im Frühling,” Das Lied von der Erde, mm. 80-85....................................................................................69 Example 2.7 Caine, Manuscript M34F, “The Drunkard in Spring,” Urlicht/Primal Light, mm. 80-85 .......................................................................................70 Example 2.8 Caine, Manuscript M7A, “Dark Flame,” Dark Flame, mm. 6-14 ............................73 Example 2.9 Caine, Manuscript M49C, “Symphony no. 1 »Titan«, 3rd movement,” Urlicht/Primal Light, mm. 69-70 .......................................................................................75 Example 2.10 Caine, Manuscript M4A, “When My Sweetheart Has Her Wedding,” Dark Flame, mm. 1-7.........................................................................................................79 Example 2.11 Mahler, “Wenn mein Schatz Hochzeit macht,” Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen, mm. 1-17 ......................................................................80 Example 4.1 Mahler, Symphony no. 5, Movement I “Trauermarsch,” Trumpet, mm. 152-4 ........................................................................................................140 Example 4.2 Caine, Manuscript M11K, “Symphony no. 5, Funeral March,” Urlicht/Primal Light, mm. 149-154 .................................................................................141