"Riddles and Waiting" for soprano or mezzo soprano, violin, clarinet/bass clarinet, and piano. Texts from the Anglo-Saxon in translations by Michael Alexander. (Original composition)
Item
-
Title
-
"Riddles and Waiting" for soprano or mezzo soprano, violin, clarinet/bass clarinet, and piano. Texts from the Anglo-Saxon in translations by Michael Alexander. (Original composition)
-
Identifier
-
AAI9618078
-
identifier
-
9618078
-
Creator
-
Kassel, Richard M.
-
Contributor
-
Adviser: David Olan
-
Date
-
1996
-
Language
-
English
-
Publisher
-
City University of New York.
-
Subject
-
Music
-
Abstract
-
This work sets translations of anonymous Anglo-Saxon poetry by Michael Alexander, a British poet, professor, and Ezra Pound scholar. His two books of translations focus on the individual poems (including the most famous of them, Beowulf) and many of the riddles from the Exeter Book, one of the main surviving sources for this literature. Alexander has attempted to retain the alliterative structure of the poetry, much as Wagner did in his operas. Written during the period in which Anglo-Saxon Britain was turning to Christianity, some Anglo-Saxon poems reflect the pessimist world view and clan life of the period, while others offer an optimistic, totally unquestioning belief in Jesus Christ. In either case, there is a strong connection to the earth and its creatures; most of the riddles (for which no solutions were offered) play with images of flora and fauna. I have chosen several riddles and one extended poem (Wulf and Eadwacer) to set as a cycle. The work falls into two large sections, with the lighter, even humorous poetry falling into the first section, and the mysterious and tragic poetry into the second, culminating with the words of a woman longing for her lover, who is being hunted by her own people.
-
Type
-
dissertation
-
Source
-
PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
-
degree
-
Ph.D.
