The Pastoral in Charles Griffes's Music: Aesthetic of Ambivalence

Charles Tomlinson Griffes synthesized diverse elements from other musical traditions into his unique artistic voice, creating a new musical language that blended literature, visual arts, global folk melodies, and contemporary European art music. His music explored the pastoral genre, transforming the siciliana-based tradition into a vibrant and dynamic form that retained simplicity and tranquility while introducing tension and conflict. Taylor A. Greer's book examines Griffes's conception of the pastoral and its relationship to topic theory, reflecting on the end of the nineteenth century and clarifying his artistic influences.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 380 pages
Publication date: 28 May 2024
Publisher: Indiana University Press

Charles Tomlinson Griffes, a visionary composer of the early twentieth century, synthesized diverse elements from various musical traditions to create his distinctive artistic voice. Despite his American identity, Griffes exhibited an aesthetic polyglotism, blending literary, visual, global folk, and contemporary European art music into a novel musical language. His sources of inspiration were vast, encompassing the sensual harmonies of fin-de-siècle French music, the British Aesthetic Movement, folk music from the Middle East and Java, and a wide range of poets, including William Blake, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and William Sharp. Taylor A. Greer's book, "The Pastoral in Charles Griffes's Music," delves into both Griffes's music and the rich historical context that shaped it, enriching our understanding of the composer's artistic contribution and uncovering new intersections and contradictions in European and American culture during the early twentieth century. Greer also critiques the philosophical foundation of topic theory and its relationship to the pastoral in Griffes's music, reflecting on the end of the nineteenth century and clarifying our understanding of his artistic influences. Griffes's conception of the pastoral transformed the siciliana-based tradition inherited from the eighteenth century into a vibrant and dynamic genre that retained the traditional associations of simplicity and tranquility while introducing new elements of tension, such as global voices, paradox, and occasional conflict.

Weight: 574g
Dimension: 151 x 229 x 29 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780253069290