Manuel de Falla's Vocal Cycle Trois Mélodie: an İntertextual Analysis

Abstract

The purpose of the article to analyse the artistic texts of Théophile Gauthier in Manuel de Falla's vocal cycle “Trois Mélodies” (1909). The research methodology consists in the application of comparative, structural methods, narrative and intertextual analyses of the vocal cycle “Trois Mélodies” on the poem by Théophile Gauthier. The scientific novelty consists in the analysis of the mutual influence of compositional and poetic styles in the French national vocal genre “mélodie”, intratextual connections of the artistic language of various types of art, which are coordinated in the process of interpretation in the intermedia space. The analysis of the cycle presents the artistic and aesthetic orientations of the nature of the individual author's style, the mutual influence of a wide range of national and international traditions, with the author's stylistic discoveries. Conclusions. The poems by T. Gauthier, included in the vocal cycle of M. de Falla, contain elements of ekphrasis, establish intertextual connections, which are based on the interaction of artistic codes of various types of art. The narrative nature of the cycle “Trois Mélodies” by M. de Fallia deepens the visualisation of poems in the “ver libre” genre, the psychologism of the figurative sphere, contains all the features of the French “mélodie” genre: the supremacy of the melody, operatic monologicity, strong intonation connections of the speech constructions of the vocal and piano parts. The originality of the composer's interpretation lies in the combination of the French: the “mélodie” genre and the “espafioladas” style, where Spanish rhythmic and melodic effects are used in an international style and are only remotely similar to the characteristic features of Spanish folklore, along with the purely historical national style “cante jondo” and the Chinese french style “chinoiserie”. M. de Falla's vocal cycle “Trois Mélodies” based on T. Gauthier's poem is a vivid example of a specific international dialogue of cultures.