The Orpheus Figure: the Voice in Writing, Music and Media
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Western University Scholarship@Western Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository 12-11-2013 12:00 AM The Orpheus Figure: The Voice in Writing, Music and Media Jason R. D'Aoust The University of Western Ontario Supervisor Allan Pero The University of Western Ontario Graduate Program in Theory and Criticism A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the equirr ements for the degree in Doctor of Philosophy © Jason R. D'Aoust 2013 Follow this and additional works at: https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd Part of the Comparative Literature Commons, Film and Media Studies Commons, and the Musicology Commons Recommended Citation D'Aoust, Jason R., "The Orpheus Figure: The Voice in Writing, Music and Media" (2013). Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository. 1857. https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd/1857 This Dissertation/Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by Scholarship@Western. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository by an authorized administrator of Scholarship@Western. For more information, please contact [email protected]. THE ORPHEUS FIGURE: THE VOICE IN WRITING, MUSIC AND MEDIA (Thesis format: Monograph) by Jason R. D’Aoust Graduate Program in Theory and Criticism A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy The School of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies The University of Western Ontario London, Ontario, Canada © Jason R. D’Aoust, 2013 Abstract: This study traces a historical trajectory of the voice as it encounters the Orpheus figure in writing, music, and other media. Following a critical discussion of Auerbach’s literary figuration, the author questions certain aspects of phonocentrism in relation to opera and texts using the voice for authoritative or rhetorical purposes. Grounded in the prefiguration of opera’s earlier displacement of the singing voice, the understanding of mass media and digital media then developed is critical of theories of immersion in media. The analyses of the series of works and figures (Orpheus, Ossian, and Tristan) in this study lead the author to propose a threefold historical definition of the voice: the mimetic, the representational, and the expressive. Keywords: Aura; devocalization; digital media; figuration; figure; media; mimesis; Monteverdi; narratology; occularcentrism; opera; L’Orfeo; Orpheus; Ossian; psychoanalysis; singing; Tristan und Isolde; videocentrism; voice; Wagner. ii La voix se présente comme l’énigme de la réalité humaine. Denis Vasse iii To the memory of Raymond Joly iv Acknowledgements I cordially thank Allan Pero for good advice, sound reading suggestions, ready encouragement, but especially for helping me realize that writing about the voice and Orpheus did not necessarily have to be the melancholic exercise of a once-aspiring singer, but could instead be an opportunity to carry out research from the informed vantage point of experience. Stephen Lofts made a remark during one of his seminars about the interesting ties between Humanist thought and music, which also put into motion my ideas about portions of this research project. I am grateful to have had such inspiring an advisor and second reader, who nevertheless trusted in my autonomy and self-motivation. I also wish to express my thanks to Monika Fludernik for accepting to be my official co-advisor at the Albert-Ludwigs-Universität during the year I spent in Freiburg, and for encouraging me to assiduously attend the opera. I am indebted to Bruce Saylor and Manfred Stahnke for welcoming the initial stammering descriptions of my project and generously sharing with me scores, recordings of their operas and other pertinent material. Likewise, I must thank Stefanie Wilhelm for her kind encouragement and permission to publish photos of her sets for Orpheus Kristall. I could not have carried out this part of my research without my earlier training as a musician, for which I am indebted to the fine pedagogy and artistic passion of Marie Daveluy. The late Raymond Joly, who was my close friend and piano accompanist, also played an important part in my education by fostering, among other intellectual pursuits, my musical and literary studies. My research has also benefited from the learning and encouragement of other colleagues, friends, and acquaintances, among which A. Farrar (“che bella voce!”), P. Schwenger, N. Biswas Mellamphy, D. Mellamphy, J. Cardinal and T. Cochran (whose seminars introduced me to the work of Denis Vasse and the figure), J. Fardy, I. McCausland, A. House, K. Ahmed, J. Reddekop, K. Lawless, C. Massicotte, I. Schmerling, S.D. Bélanger Michaud, B. Faucher, M. Branthomme, T. Baillargeon, A. M. David, M. Vadean, A. Fuica, M. Ricketts, J.C. Picard, N. Farooqi, C. Lapointe, B. Raytcheva, and many more. I am particularly grateful to E. Leonardi for his insistence that I should read Bernard Stiegler and to W. Samson for his meticulous and insightful revision of my translation of Vasse’s book chapter, “La voix.” I must also thank M. Edwards for regular discussions of my research topics, for proofreading this dissertation (especially my translations of German sources), for sharing insights gained from experience as a professional musician, and for encouraging me every step along the way. I also thank Melanie Caldwell, Erin Daley, Paula Menzies, Catherine Dorais-Plesko and Margaret Richmond, who simplified and humanized what, without their support, would certainly have turned into time-consuming meanderings in the mazes of administrative mysteries. I acknowledge the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, as well as The Richard J. Schmeelk Foundation of Canada for entrusting me with generous fellowships that have financially supported my doctoral research. v Table of Contents Introduction.................................................................................................................................... 1 Chapter I – The Descent............................................................................................................26 The Hidden Voice’s Luminous Revelation................................................................................29 Pythagoras and Plato on the Origins of the Voice...............................................................29 Hebraic Orphic Figuration.......................................................................................................40 Descent and Music in Augustine’s Confessions .......................................................................43 Historicity and the Musical Voice................................................................................................56 The Voice’s Betrayal of Time ..................................................................................................57 Figuration and the Word’s Song .............................................................................................62 L’Orfeo & the Origins of Opera According to Psychoanalysis ...........................................74 The Backwards-Glancing Voice...................................................................................................87 Orpheus and Figuration in Italian Humanism......................................................................88 Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo: Staged Musical Figuration .................................................................99 Modern Vocal Figuration .......................................................................................................107 Chapter II – The Reversed Return .........................................................................................115 Ossian: The Veiled Light of an Orphic Fable .........................................................................119 Homer Plagiarizing Orpheus .................................................................................................120 Macpherson’s Ossian Figure..................................................................................................125 The Voice of Ossian ...............................................................................................................134 Origins & Supplements of the Musical Voice .........................................................................140 The Musical Origins of Natural Language...........................................................................141 Phonocentrism and The Expressive Voice .........................................................................151 Barring the Voice’s Objectification.......................................................................................158 The Orphean Reversal.................................................................................................................168 Nietzsche and the Dionysian Orpheus ................................................................................168 Tristan und Isolde, “an Orphic figure in reverse” ..................................................................178 Nietzsche’s Musical Figuration of the Expressive Voice ..................................................191 Chapter III – The Beheading...................................................................................................203 Derrida’s Musical Parenthesis................................................................................................212 Narratological Voices..............................................................................................................219 Voice in Musical Narratology ................................................................................................226