Our
last article on Akira Mizubayashi's novel, Âme brisée will deal with the
relations between music and language as well as the relations between music and
text. To make music one of the central elements of his story, the author
develops various strategies. We shall explore some of them.
The novel is made up of four parts. Each of these parts gets its title from one of the four movements of Schubert's Rosamunde quartet. Thus, the first part of the book is entitled “Allegro ma non troppo”, the second “Andante”, the third “Menuetto: Allegretto” and the fourth “Allegro moderato”.
Here's a remarkable phenomenon: the novel contains two extracts from the score. The theme from the “Andante” appears in the first part, at a moment when Yu, Rei's father, and the Chinese musicians are in rehearsal (p. 49). The theme from the “Allegro ma non troppo” appears in the last part of the novel, at a moment when Jacques and Hélène are attending a performance of the quartet at the Salle Pleyel (p. 211).
In the first part of the novel, the amateur musicians analyze their progress with Schubert’s masterpiece (p. 32-34), try to establish parallels with other works by the composer. When Cheng talks about the rhythm played by the viola and the cello, he uses onomatopoeias: “tâ… takatakata……, tâ… takatakata……, tâ… takatakata……”. Through his punctuation and the use of the circumflex, the author tries to translate rhythms, pitches and accents into text. On the next page, Rei’s father uses Cheng's formula.
When the quartet makes another attempt at playing the first movement (p. 35) the author chooses to write the names of the pitches. Let's compare the punctuation representing the eighth notes of the second violin with the punctuation representing the first phrases of the theme played by the first violin. In the formula « Do-mi-do-si-do-mi-la-mi, do-mi-do-si-do-mi-la-mi », eighth notes are separated by a dash while the comma represents the bar line. In the formula « Mi~~~do~la~~, do~si~~~-ré-do-si-do-si-la-~do~si~~~sol#~do~~~la~ré~~ré#~~mi~~~ » the tilde represents note lengths which are equal to or longer than quarter notes and dashes are still indicative of eighth notes; the comma, however, no longer indicates a bar line but the end of the legato line.
Yu has a proposition for Yanfen, Cheng and Kang: why not lose the conventions of the Japanese language and try to establish greater equality between them? (p. 44-45). He seems to have drawn inspiration from the music: “We are all equally small before this great work” (“Nous sommes aussi petits les uns que les autres devant cette œuvre immense”). The members of the Chinese-Japanese quartet are willing to give it a try: from then on, they address one another using their first names only (without the suffix “san”).
In the second part, as Jacques abandons his literary studies at the Sorbonne to start his apprenticeship in Mirecourt, the author justifies his character's choice by explaining his frustrations. “The scientific approach to literature, with its insistence on the author, seemed to be missing the point entirely: the vast field of resonances forming the immediate and tangible reality of each work.” (“La manière savante d’aborder la littérature, à force de s’attacher à l’auteur, lui avait semblé manquer l’essentiel : le vaste champ des résonances des mots formant la réalité première et tangible de chaque œuvre” p. 96). Is there a connection between this remark and Jacques's rearranging of Paul Verlaine's verse (p. 110)?
It is also important that we mention the interview of Jacques by a journalist working for the magazine “Musique et Parole” (p. 225-227). The author details the different steps which lead to the publication of the interview. He tells the readers how the journalist organizes the meetings: over the course of three days, two hours each day; manuscript notes and audio recordings. Upon reception of the draft, Jacques makes a first set of revisions before making further modifications the following day in what amounts to four successive read-throughs. Once the interview is published, Jacques decides to translate it to Japanese (p. 231-232).
For Jacques is a latecomer to translation. He has begun work on a French translation of How Do You Live? by Genzaburo Yoshino (p. 227, 230 et 235). One easily imagines switching from violin-making to translation. Indeed, it requires patience and meticulousness, qualities that Jacques possesses in abundance. Earlier, the novel makes a connection between the clandestine rehearsal of the Chinese-Japanese quartet in the first part of the book and Takiji Kobayashi's novella, The Crab Cannery Ship (p. 188). This text describes the working conditions of fishermen on crab-fishing expeditions in the Okhotsk Sea. And that is how the author ties two very different works from the Japanese canon to the lives of his characters.
Mizubayashi, Akira, Âme brisée, Gallimard, 2019
The novel is made up of four parts. Each of these parts gets its title from one of the four movements of Schubert's Rosamunde quartet. Thus, the first part of the book is entitled “Allegro ma non troppo”, the second “Andante”, the third “Menuetto: Allegretto” and the fourth “Allegro moderato”.
Here's a remarkable phenomenon: the novel contains two extracts from the score. The theme from the “Andante” appears in the first part, at a moment when Yu, Rei's father, and the Chinese musicians are in rehearsal (p. 49). The theme from the “Allegro ma non troppo” appears in the last part of the novel, at a moment when Jacques and Hélène are attending a performance of the quartet at the Salle Pleyel (p. 211).
In the first part of the novel, the amateur musicians analyze their progress with Schubert’s masterpiece (p. 32-34), try to establish parallels with other works by the composer. When Cheng talks about the rhythm played by the viola and the cello, he uses onomatopoeias: “tâ… takatakata……, tâ… takatakata……, tâ… takatakata……”. Through his punctuation and the use of the circumflex, the author tries to translate rhythms, pitches and accents into text. On the next page, Rei’s father uses Cheng's formula.
When the quartet makes another attempt at playing the first movement (p. 35) the author chooses to write the names of the pitches. Let's compare the punctuation representing the eighth notes of the second violin with the punctuation representing the first phrases of the theme played by the first violin. In the formula « Do-mi-do-si-do-mi-la-mi, do-mi-do-si-do-mi-la-mi », eighth notes are separated by a dash while the comma represents the bar line. In the formula « Mi~~~do~la~~, do~si~~~-ré-do-si-do-si-la-~do~si~~~sol#~do~~~la~ré~~ré#~~mi~~~ » the tilde represents note lengths which are equal to or longer than quarter notes and dashes are still indicative of eighth notes; the comma, however, no longer indicates a bar line but the end of the legato line.
Yu has a proposition for Yanfen, Cheng and Kang: why not lose the conventions of the Japanese language and try to establish greater equality between them? (p. 44-45). He seems to have drawn inspiration from the music: “We are all equally small before this great work” (“Nous sommes aussi petits les uns que les autres devant cette œuvre immense”). The members of the Chinese-Japanese quartet are willing to give it a try: from then on, they address one another using their first names only (without the suffix “san”).
In the second part, as Jacques abandons his literary studies at the Sorbonne to start his apprenticeship in Mirecourt, the author justifies his character's choice by explaining his frustrations. “The scientific approach to literature, with its insistence on the author, seemed to be missing the point entirely: the vast field of resonances forming the immediate and tangible reality of each work.” (“La manière savante d’aborder la littérature, à force de s’attacher à l’auteur, lui avait semblé manquer l’essentiel : le vaste champ des résonances des mots formant la réalité première et tangible de chaque œuvre” p. 96). Is there a connection between this remark and Jacques's rearranging of Paul Verlaine's verse (p. 110)?
It is also important that we mention the interview of Jacques by a journalist working for the magazine “Musique et Parole” (p. 225-227). The author details the different steps which lead to the publication of the interview. He tells the readers how the journalist organizes the meetings: over the course of three days, two hours each day; manuscript notes and audio recordings. Upon reception of the draft, Jacques makes a first set of revisions before making further modifications the following day in what amounts to four successive read-throughs. Once the interview is published, Jacques decides to translate it to Japanese (p. 231-232).
For Jacques is a latecomer to translation. He has begun work on a French translation of How Do You Live? by Genzaburo Yoshino (p. 227, 230 et 235). One easily imagines switching from violin-making to translation. Indeed, it requires patience and meticulousness, qualities that Jacques possesses in abundance. Earlier, the novel makes a connection between the clandestine rehearsal of the Chinese-Japanese quartet in the first part of the book and Takiji Kobayashi's novella, The Crab Cannery Ship (p. 188). This text describes the working conditions of fishermen on crab-fishing expeditions in the Okhotsk Sea. And that is how the author ties two very different works from the Japanese canon to the lives of his characters.
Mizubayashi, Akira, Âme brisée, Gallimard, 2019
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