Overview

Difficult Rhythm examines E. M. Forster's irrepressible interest in music, providing plentiful examples of how the eminent British author's fiction resonates with music. Musicologist Michelle Fillion analyzes his critical writings, short stories, and novels, including A Room with a View, which alludes to Beethoven, Wagner, and Schumann, and Howards End, which explicitly alerts readers how fiction can adopt musical forms and ideas. This volume also includes, for the first time in print, Forster's notes on Beethoven's piano sonatas. Documenting his knowledge of music, his musical favorites and friends, and his attitudes toward various composers, performances, and competing musical theories, this engaging book traces the musical influences of luminaries such as Wagner, Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, and Britten on Forster's life and work.

Full Product Details

Author:   Michelle Fillion
Publisher:   University of Illinois Press
Imprint:   University of Illinois Press
Dimensions:   Width: 15.20cm , Height: 2.00cm , Length: 22.90cm
Weight:   0.340kg
ISBN:  

9780252079023

ISBN 10:   0252079027
Pages:   224
Publication Date:   01 May 2013
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Undergraduate ,  Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Out of stock  
The supplier is temporarily out of stock of this item. It will be ordered for you on backorder and shipped when it becomes available.

Table of Contents

"List of Abbreviations   ix List of Musical Examples   xiii List of Figures   xv Preface   xvii 1. E. M. Forster's Life in Music   1 2. ""Creating"" Lucia: The Voice of Luisa Tetrazzini in Where Angels Fear to Tread   24 3. Wagnerism, ""Decadent"" Wagnerites, and Wagnerian Motives in The Longest Journey   39 4. ""New Woman"" or ""Piano Girl"": Lucy's Music in A Room with a View   56 5. Not Listening to Beethoven and Brahms at the Queen's Hall: Music as Vision in Howards End   79 6. Tchaikovsky and the Deflowering of Masculine Love in Maurice   93 7. ""Beethoven's Piano Sonatas"" (1939-40) and the Twilight of the Hero   108 8. Claggart's Monologue and the Art of Collaboration in Billy Budd   123 9. Conclusion: Difficult Rhythm, Prophetic Song   138 Appendix A: Forster's Known Ballets Russes Attendance   145 Appendix B: Forster's Known Opera Attendance   146 Notes   151 Works Cited   173 Index   189"

Reviews

<p> A very comprehensive and perceptive assessment of the role of music in E. M. Forster's life and work. -- Music and Letters<br><br> Difficult Rhythm is a tasty read, indeed. Fillion impressively and gracefully shows how Forster's engagement and fascination with music in his works articulates his evolving social, political, and ideological concerns. --Todd Avery, author of Radio Modernism: Literature, Ethics, and the BBC, 1922-1938

Author Information

Michelle Fillion is a professor of musicology at the University of Victoria, British Columbia, and the editor of Early Viennese Chamber Music with Obbligato Keyboard.

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