Montale, Debussy, and Modernism

172 Pages·1990·16.26 MB·English

by  Gian-Paolo Biasin

Montale,
Debussy, and Modernism
Princeton Essays on the Arts
For a complete list
of books in this series,
see page 159.
Montale,
Debussy, and Modernism
Gian-Paolo Biasin
Princeton University Press
Princeton, New Jersey
Copyright © 1989
by Princeton University Press
Published by Princeton University Press,
41 William Street,
Princeton, New Jersey 08540
In the United Kingdom:
Princeton University Press,
Guildford, Surrey
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Biasin, Gian-Paolo.
Montale, Debussy, and modernism.
(Princeton essays on the arts)
Translation of: Il vento di Debussy.
Bibliography: p.
Includes index.
1. Montale, Eugenio, 1896—1981—Criticism and
interpretation. 2. Debussy, Claude, 1862-1918—
Influence. 3. Ut pictura poesis (Aesthetics)
4. Europe—Intellectual life—20th century. I. Title.
II. Series.
PQ4829.0565Z568613 ig8g 851'.12 89-10516
ISBN 0-691-06790-2
ISBN 0-691-01466-3 (pbk.)
This book has been composed in
Linotron Baskerville
Clothbound editions of
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Printed in the United States of America
by Princeton University Press,
Princeton, New Jersey
Contents
List of Illustrations vii
Preface ix
1 Debussy and the Wind 3
2 Ut Figura Poesis 36
3 Strategies of the Antihero 6g
Epilogue The Plainclothes Clown 108
Notes 118
Index 151
V

Illustrations
1. Space in "In limine." 27
2. Syntax of "Corno inglese." 32
3. Giorgio Morandi, Still Life with Sugar Bowl, a
Lemon and Bread, 1921 or 1922. This and the
following Morandi etchings are taken from
Lamberto Vitali, L'opera grafica di Giorgio
Morandi (Turin: Einaudi, 1980), by kind
permission of the author. 49
4. Giorgio Morandi, Still Life with Bread Basket,
1921. 50
5. Giorgio Morandi, Still Life with Drapery on the
Left, 1927* 5°
6. Giorgio Morandi, Large, Dark Still Life, 1934. 51
7. Giorgio Morandi, Still Life with Five Objects, 1956. 52
8. Giorgio Morandi, Various Objects on a Table, 1931. 53
9. Giorgio Morandi, Still Life in an Oval, circa 1942. 54
10. Giorgio Morandi, The Bridge on the Savena River
at Bologna, 1912. 55
11. Giorgio Morandi, The White Road, 1933. 56
12. Giorgio Morandi, II Poggio in the Evening, 1927. 57
13. Giorgio Morandi, II Poggio in the Morning, 1928. 58
14. Giorgio Morandi, The Garden at Fondazza Street,
1924- 59
vii

Preface
Eugenio Montale's poetry is such that it causes not only
long-lasting fidelities but also broad resonances, reverber
ations, and comparisons which expand it and involve it in
the European culture of the twentieth century in a subtle,
often elusive, yet pervasive manner. In this book I want to
explore some of these resonances, part of these reverber
ations, two such comparisons. I want to keep Montale's po
etry at the center of my discourse and at the same time go
around it by little-known paths which may be winding, rich
with ramifications, intersections, and invitations.
In my itinerary I discuss the possible homologies be
tween poetry and music, not in the well-known area of the
relationship between libretto and score in opera, but in the
more particular one of the formal and thematic choices
which marked a modern turning point in both music and
poetry. In this area, although I am not a musicologist, I try
to show the importance of Claude Debussy not only, as is
obvious, for the musical innovations of our century (all the
way to Arnold Schonberg and dodecaphony), but for po
etry as well, and for the young Montale in particular. In
Debussy the wind is a theme, a musical image, a literary
topos which, while hearkening back to romanticism, opens
up unexpected passages in our understanding of twenti
eth-century poetry; it is an invaluable and indispensable
IX