Musical Ekphrasis and the Prospects of Intermedial Research

Abstract

Following the current tendency of extension of analytical approaches in contemporary analysis
of art, works musicologists frequently bring in the notion of “intermediality.” Having separated
itself from the notion of “intertextuality” (Aage Hansen-Loewe, Ivan Ilyin) “intermediality” joined
the group of those tools of art criticism which makes it possible to analyze the interconnection
of different “media” in a work of art. “Musical ekphrasis” has been developed as a concept
in the musicological works of Sieglinde Bruhn. Through the sequence of actions proposed by
Bruhn in her book it becomes possible to systematize the relationships of different media in the
realm of one musical composition by the example of Kaija Saariaho’s composition “Frises”
for solo violin. The composer’s annotation to the work discloses the mechanism of association
in a two-stage interaction: from Bach’s Chaconne for solo violin (as the starting point) to the
“Frises” by Odilon Redon and Moritz Escher`s etchings, and onwards to the Baroque musical
genres (according to composer, the “carillon, ground, passacaglia, and chaconne”). The notion
of the “frise” as a type of painting endowed with a potential for development in time turns out
to be a crucial concept. The frise as a concept (rather than a title of a particular musical work)
becomes an “umbrella term” for different kinds of musical unfolding establishing a plurality of
relationships within the framework of conceptual unity.

Keywords: analysis, intermediality, musical ekphrasis, Saariaho, frie.