When we think of Iris Murdochs relationship with art forms, the visual arts come most readily to mind. However, music and other sounds are equally important. Soundscapes music and other types of sound contribute to the richly textured atmosphere and moral tenor of Murdochs novels. This book will help readers to appreciate anew the sensuous nature of Iris Murdochs prose, and to listen for all kinds of music, sounds and silences in her novels, opening up a new sub-field in Murdoch studies in line with the emerging field of Word and Music Studies.
This study is supported by close readings of selected novels exemplifying the subtle variety of ways she deploys music, sounds and silence in her fiction. It also covers Murdochs knowledge of music and her allusions to music throughout her work, and includes a survey of musical settings of her words by various composers.
Recenzijos
This book is also a rare example of appendices being as fascinating and as impressive as the main text. Both scholarly and entertaining, it will be accessible to a general reader, although it is most likely to be of interest to those already reasonably familiar with Murdochs fiction who will surely find they hear things in the novels which they have never heard before. (Janfarie Skinner, Iris Murdoch Review, 2022)
1.
Chapter 1 Listening to Iris Murdoch.- Introduction.- Music and sound
in fiction: a review of the field.- Music in Murdochs life.- Discussions of
music in Murdochs philosophy.- The sound-worlds in Murdochs fiction.- Part
I Music.-
2.
Chapter 2 The music is too painful: Music as character and
atmosphere.- Introduction.- Awaken, my blackbird: Music in The unicorn.-
Like a breathless enchanted girl: Music in The red and the green.- The swan
princess: Music in The time of the angels.- The concourse of sweet sounds:
Music in The nice and the good.- Conclusion.-
3.
Chapter 3 The point at
which flesh and spirit most joyfully meet: Singers and singing.-
Introduction.- Che cosa e amor?: Singing in The sea, the sea.- Singing as
exclusion in The message to the planet.- Never to sing again? Never?:
Singing in The philosophers pupil (1983).- Conclusion.-
4.
Chapter 4 Musical
women and unmusical men.- Introduction: Of course they never letthe women
sing..- Quiet women: The good apprentice.- Silent pianos.- No women
composers.- Opera, intimacy, sexuality and androgyny in A fairly honourable
defeat.- Conclusion.- Part II Silence and sound.-
5.
Chapter 5 Different
voices, different discourses: Voices and other human sounds.- Introduction:
Serious noticing.- The long search for words: Something special.- The
quiet sound of voices: The sandcastle.- Intolerable with menace: Henry and
Cato.- A mechanical litany: The good apprentice.- Conclusion.-
6.
Chapter 6
Like a clarity under a mist: Ambient noise and silence, dreamscapes and
atmosphere.- Introduction.- The sacred and profane love machine: The drama of
silence.- The black prince and Under the net: Silence and art.- Brunos
dream: Synaesthesia and perception.- Nuns and soldiers.- Conclusion.- Part
III Settings.-
7.
Chapter 7 Just bring me the composers: Musical settings
of Iris Murdochs words.- Introduction.-The servants opera: music by
William Mathias, libretto by Iris Murdoch.- The round horizon, cantata in
five parts: music by Christopher Bochmann, words by Iris Murdoch.- The one
alone: Radio play with music by Gary Carpenter.- A year of birds: Song cycle
for soprano and orchestra by Malcolm Williamson.- Forgive me. In memoriam
Iris Murdoch, 1919-1999, for unaccompanied vocal ensemble (SATB) by Paul
Crabtree.- Inspired by Iris: Paul Hullah and Kent Wennman.- Paul Hullah, All
the names under the sun and Home.- Kent Wennman, A Jerusalem conversation and
The thinker and the feeling one.- Conclusion: Iris Murdoch set to music.-
Coda Sound, music, silence and listening.- Part IV The music.- Appendix 1
Music mentioned in Murdochs fiction.- Classical composers.- Vocal music.-
Chronological list of music mentioned in Murdochs fiction.- Appendix 2 Items
in Iris Murdochs Oxford music collection held at Kingston University
Library.- Iris Murdochs manuscript notebooks of songs.- Anthologies,
collections, scores etc.- Single works.
Gillian Dooley is an Honorary Senior Research Fellow at Flinders University, South Australia. She has written extensively on various literary topics, often in connection with music. Her publications include From a Tiny Corner of the House of Fiction: Conversations with Iris Murdoch (2003) and other edited works on Murdoch, as well as monographs on V.S. Naipaul and J.M. Coetzee.
