INCIPIT: The search for a multidisciplinary language at the crossroads of Antiquity and Contemporaneity

[EN] SUMMARY OF THE THESIS The PhD thesis "INCIPIT: The search for a multidisciplinary language at the crossroads of Antiquity and Contemporaneity" focusses on the influence of the methodology of Historically Informed Performance practice on the creation of a Contemporary Music Theatre performance. The framework and creative basis for their connection is the Divina Commedia of Dante Alighieri (1265-1321). In music theatre it is not only about music as one of the scenic elements; musical thinking structures the entire theatrical process. It is a genre-between-genre, where various art disciplines interact. Historically Informed Performance practice is a characteristic musical approach of the Early Music movement. It includes study of historical documents and objects in order to obtain a more profound understanding of the music and a performance practice which is based upon this comprehension. In our thesis, Historically Informed Performance practice has been connected with Contemporary Music Theatre through a mise-en-scene of Dante's Commedia, principally based upon its sonorous non-musical and musical references. Also references of movement, gesture, colour and light were taken into account for the mise-en-scene, but always in relation to the sonorous references. In this way, the mise-en-scene is a sonorous journey through Dante's Afterworld as he might have imagined it, but also a contemporary visual and dramatical journey. This research has been done through artistic practice: the creation and performance of a contemporary music theatre work called Incipit. It is based upon thorough knowledge of the Commedia and, through its methodology of Historically Informed Performance Practice, it has mostly made used of 14th century musical sources. An audio file was created as a sonorous element for Incipit, based on previously existing sounds and recording of songs and texts.The performance was recorded in video format. The research question was: How do the work methods taken from Historically Informed Performance practice contribute to the creation of a contemporary music theatre performance in a mise-en-scene of the Divina Commedia? For this practice-based research not only historical-musical knowledge was necessary but also literary knowledge of Dante's Commedia and its underlying meanings. Theoretical knowledge thus was an important basis for the practice. However, the practice itself also provided information for the theory. For the composition of three-voice "simple polyphony" according to the rules for polyphonic improvisation around 1300, theoretical knowledge was essential, but their practice led to historical-musical insights of its performance and its rules for intervallic and rhythmic matters. The practice provided a new perspective on Dante's narrative from a sonorous point of view. Finally, the practice combined two disciplines, Early Music and Contemporary Music Theatre, which are not commonly combined, and it provides us new theoretical insights of creative processes and musical-theatrical languages.[ES] RESUMEN DE LA TESIS La tesis doctoral "INCIPIT: La búsqueda de un lenguaje multidisciplinario en el punto de encuentro entre la antigüedad y contemporaneidad" trata sobre la influencia de la metodología de la práctica de interpretación históricamente informada en la creación de una puesta en escena de Teatro Musical Contemporáneo. El marco y la base creativa para su combinación es la Divina Comedia de Dante Alighieri (1265 - 1321). El teatro musical no se centra solamente en la música como uno de los elementos escénicos; el pensamiento musical estructura todo el proceso teatral. Es un género-entre-géneros donde interactúan varias disciplinas artísticas. La interpretación históricamente informada es una manera de abordar la música que caracterizan los intérpretes especializados en la Música Antigua. Incluye el estudio de documentos y objetos históricos con el fin de llegar a una comprensión más profunda de la música antigua y una práctica interpretativa que se basa en este entendimiento. En esta tesis, se ha relacionado la interpretación históricamente informada con el teatro musical contemporáneo a través de una puesta en escena de la Comedia de Dante basada principalmente en sus referencias sonoras, tanto musicales como no musicales. Además se tomaron en cuenta las referencias de movimiento, gesto, color y luz para la puesta en escena pero siempre en relación con las referencias sonoras. De esta forma, la puesta en escena se ha convertido en un viaje sonoro a través del Más Allá de Dante como él mismo podría haberlo imaginado, pero también siendo un viaje visualmente y dramáticamente de carácter contemporáneo. Esta investigación se ha realizado a través de la práctica artística: la creación e interpretación de una obra de teatro musical contemporáneo llamada Incipit. Se basa en un conocimiento profundo de la Comedia y, a través de la metodología de la práctica interpretativa históricamente informada, se ha hecho principalmente uso de fuentes musicales del siglo XIV. Un archivo de audio fue creado como elemento sonoro para Incipit, compuesto de sonidos previamente existentes y la grabación de cantos y textos. La actuación fue grabada en formato de vídeo. La pregunta de investigación fue: ¿Cómo contribuyen los métodos de trabajo tomados de la práctica interpretativa históricamente informada a la creación de una actuación de teatro musical contemporáneo en una puesta en escena de la Divina Comedia? Para esta investigación basada en la práctica, no sólo fue necesario el conocimiento histórico-musical, sino también el conocimiento literario de la Comedia de Dante y sus significados subyacentes. Por lo tanto el conocimiento teórico ha constituido una base importante para la práctica. Sin embargo, la práctica en sí también proporciona información para la teoría. En cuanto a la composición de "polifonía sencilla" a tres voces, de acuerdo con las reglas para la improvisación polifónica de principios del siglo XIV, ha sido esencial recurrir a un gran conocimiento teórico, pero su práctica interpretativa dio lugar a ideas histórico-musicales de su interpretación y sus normas acerca de cuestiones de intervalos y ritmos musicales. La práctica proporciona, desde un punto de vista sonoro, una nueva perspectiva de la narrativa de Dante. Por último, la interpretación junta dos disciplinas que no han sido combinadas frecuentemente: la Música Antigua y el Teatro Musical Contemporáneo, proporcionándonos nuevos conocimientos teóricos de los procesos creativos y los lenguajes musical-teatrales.[CA] RESUM DE LA TESI La tesi doctoral "INCIPIT: La recerca d'un llenguatge multidisciplinari en el punt de trobada entre l'antiguitat i contemporaneïtat" tracta sobre la influència de la metodologia de la pràctica d'interpretació històricament informada en la creació d'una posada en escena de Teatre Musical Contemporani. El marc i la base creativa per la seua combinació és la Divina Comèdia de Dante Alighieri (1265-1321). El teatre musical no se centra només en la música com un dels elements escènics; el pensament musical estructura tot el procés teatral. És un gènere-entre-gèneres on interactuen diverses disciplines artístiques. La interpretació històricament informada és una manera d'abordar la música que caracteritzen els intèrprets especialitzats en la Música Antiga. Inclou l'estudi de documents i objectes històrics per tal d'arribar a una comprensió més profunda de la música antiga i una pràctica interpretativa que es basa en aquest endement. En aquesta tesi, s'ha relacionat la interpretació històricament informada amb el teatre musical contemporani a través d'una posada en escena de la Comèdia de Dante basada principalment en les seues referències sonores, tant musicals com no musicals. A més es van prendre en compte les referències de moviment, gest, color i llum per a la posada en escena però sempre en relació amb les referències sonores. D'aquesta manera, la posada en escena s'ha convertit en un viatge sonor a través del Més Enllà de Dante com ell mateix podria haver-ho imaginat, però també sent un viatge visualment i dramàticament de caràcter contemporani. Aquesta investigació s'ha realitzat a través de la pràctica artística: la creació i interpretació d'una obra de teatre musical contemporani anomenada Incipit. Es basa en un coneixement profund de la Comèdia i, a través de la metodologia de la pràctica interpretativa històricament informada, s'ha fet principalment ús de fonts musicals del segle XIV. Un arxiu d'àudio va ser creat com a element sonor per a Incipit, compost de sons prèviament existents i de la gravació de cants i textos. L'actuació va ser gravada en format de vídeo. La pregunta d'investigació va ser: Com contribueixen els mètodes de treball presos de la pràctica interpretativa històricament informada a la creació d'una actuació de teatre musical contemporani en una posada en escena de la Divina Comèdia? Per a aquesta investigació basada en la pràctica, no només va ser necessari el coneixement històric-musical, sinó també el coneixement literari de la Comèdia de Dante i els seus significats subjacents. Per tant el coneixement teòric ha constituït una base important per a la pràctica. No obstant això, la pràctica en si també proporciona informació per a la teoria. Pel que fa a la composició de "polifonia senzilla" a tres veus, d'acord amb les regles per a la improvisació polifònica de principis del segle XIV, ha sigut essencial recórrer a un gran coneixement teòric, però la seua pràctica interpretativa va donar lloc a idees historicomusicals de la seua interpretació i les seues normes sobre qüestions d'intervals i ritmes musicals. La pràctica proporciona, des d'un punt de vista sonor, una nova perspectiva de la narrativa de Dante. Finalment, la interpretació junta dues disciplines que no han estat combinades freqüentment: la Música Antiga i el Teatre Musical Contemporani, proporcionant-nos nous coneixements teòrics dels processos creatius i els llenguatges musical-teatrals.Sprenkeling, L. (2016). INCIPIT: The search for a multidisciplinary language at the crossroads of Antiquity and Contemporaneity [Tesis doctoral no publicada]. Universitat Politècnica de València. https://doi.org/10.4995/Thesis/10251/62682TESI

Dante's Enamoured Mind

Dante as the poet-philosopher of living hope

Reading Dante's Commedia through Augustine's Hermeneutics of caritas

The aim of this research is to consider Dante’s Christology in terms of Augustine’s hermeneutical practice. This thesis examines four figures in Dante’s Commedia who exemplify reading through proper and improper hermeneutical approaches and how their approaches are related to good and bad forms of love, which Augustine identifies as caritas and cupiditas: Francesca and Virgil from the Inferno, Statius from the Purgatorio, and Piccarda from the Paradiso. This thesis also examines moments in which Dante invites readers to engage with the Commedia hermeneutically. In applying Augustine’s hermeneutics of caritas, as presented in De doctrina Christiana, to a reading of Dante’s Commedia, this research considers how the Commedia directs readers to conduct themselves toward God and neighbour in accordance with Christ’s teachings. Augustine’s rules for Biblical interpretation are founded on his gloss on Jesus Christ’s words to love and enjoy God on God’s own account and to love and enjoy neighbours in relation to God (De doctrina Christiana 3.10.16). Christ’s commandments set the standard for Christian morality and provide the hermeneutical key to understanding Scripture and the ideal form of love that Christ himself paradigmatically exemplifies. Those who follow Augustine’s rules of interpretation know that all of Scripture reveals these two commandments and offers examples of how to live Christologically in accordance with these teachings. Augustine’s rules for interpretation were one of the prevailing approaches to hermeneutics in the Middle Ages and one which, when applied to a reading of Dante’s Commedia, illuminates the same Christocentric teaching

The dialectics of eros: from Plato to Dante

Though Dante never read Plato's dialogues on love, when examining the texts of Dante one notes the presence of Platonic thought and influence particularly concerning the notion of love. This thesis will focus upon the Platonic notion of eros and how it changes over time, ultimately being integrated into the Christian notion of love as understood by Dante, and how this Platonic influence is instantiated within Dante's poetry. The inherent ambiguity of the concept of love, evident historically through frequent debates concerning its value whether positive, negative or in-between, makes any investigation into the nature of love problematic, often aporetic. One aim of this thesis is to help overcome some of the aporiai of knowledge concerning love through focusing upon one form of love, eros or passionate desire, which we shall use in order to understand love more generally through exploring its points of intersection and overlapping with certain other types of love, each of which emphasizes different aspects of love's character differentiated through culture and period. Significantly eros, as perhaps the most ambiguous type of love, is often characterized negatively. Taking into account Nygren's negative view of eros which he sees as being wholly acquisitive and self-seeking as opposed to the thoroughly selfless Christian agape, we shall consider whether this view tells the full truth about eros. In this endeavour we shall explore the interrelationship of eros and understanding understood as a dialectic directed towards the pursuit of truth, which in both the Platonic and Christian traditions involves the permanent possession of the good, beautiful and true; these converge in Neo-Platonic tradition, forming a unity which in Christianity is identified with God. We shall also explore how various strands of eros relate to and articulate the notion of love of the individual. These explorations cast light on the transformation of Platonic eros by Christian agape into the Latin concept of caritas. In terms of procedure, we shall examine the notion of Platonic eros as presented in the Symposium and the Phaedrus and how this conception is reinterpreted in Dante's Commedia, these texts together acting as a lens which -will enable us better to comprehend the significance of Bros, and of love more generally, through the transformation of eros over time

Divine Comedy in English: a critical bibliography of Dante['s] translation, 1782-1954

It seemed equally important to find out something about the translators: their background, the nature of their interest in Dante, their motives in tackling the task of translation, their equipment, their other literary achievements and so on. While this was fairly easy with some of them, a great many proved very difficult to identify; but one or two strokes of luck during the first phase of the investigation gave encouragement, and all except a few have emerged as personalities.The object of the following pages is to present the fullest possible array of facts regarding the English translators of the Divine Comedy or substantial portions thereof; to give specimens of each translation together with a critical appraisal; to draw at least some preliminary conclusions from the results with regard to the principles on which the translation of poetry has been and should be based, as well as to its historical development, its relation to contemporary thought, and its value as a department of literature; and lastly to give a brief glance at the corresponding achievements in other languages, with perhaps a side -glance at the parallel stream of Faust translations. In the main only translations extending to at least one completed cantica have been dealt with, so that the record begins in the year 1782 with the appearance of Rogers' Inferno; incidentally until that year not even a single complete canto of the Divine Comedy had been printed in English

The dialectics of eros : from Plato to Dante

Though Dante never read Plato's dialogues on love, when examining the texts of Dante one notes the presence of Platonic thought and influence particularly concerning the notion of love. This thesis will focus upon the Platonic notion of eros and how it changes over time, ultimately being integrated into the Christian notion of love as understood by Dante, and how this Platonic influence is instantiated within Dante's poetry. The inherent ambiguity of the concept of love, evident historically through frequent debates concerning its value whether positive, negative or in-between, makes any investigation into the nature of love problematic, often aporetic. One aim of this thesis is to help overcome some of the aporiai of knowledge concerning love through focusing upon one form of love, eros or passionate desire, which we shall use in order to understand love more generally through exploring its points of intersection and overlapping with certain other types of love, each of which emphasizes different aspects of love's character differentiated through culture and period. Significantly eros, as perhaps the most ambiguous type of love, is often characterized negatively. Taking into account Nygren's negative view of eros which he sees as being wholly acquisitive and self-seeking as opposed to the thoroughly selfless Christian agape, we shall consider whether this view tells the full truth about eros. In this endeavour we shall explore the interrelationship of eros and understanding understood as a dialectic directed towards the pursuit of truth, which in both the Platonic and Christian traditions involves the permanent possession of the good, beautiful and true; these converge in Neo-Platonic tradition, forming a unity which in Christianity is identified with God. We shall also explore how various strands of eros relate to and articulate the notion of love of the individual. These explorations cast light on the transformation of Platonic eros by Christian agape into the Latin concept of caritas. In terms of procedure, we shall examine the notion of Platonic eros as presented in the Symposium and the Phaedrus and how this conception is reinterpreted in Dante's Commedia, these texts together acting as a lens which -will enable us better to comprehend the significance of Bros, and of love more generally, through the transformation of eros over time.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

The Ecological Comedy : The Case for an Existential Literary Ecology

Human beings are story making animals. Before homo faber came homo symbolicus. Ecological restoration is a restorying. Transitioning to a new world is always a matter of being between stories. We may call these worldviews, standpoints or paradigms, articulating norms and values. We are moving from one view, the materialist, mechanistic and reductionist understanding of the world as some objective datum to a view which sees the world as creative, participatory, animate, and interconnected. In between stories, however, our lives express a certain schizophrenia. We lurch between contrary positions, recognising the right thing to do whilst continuing with practices that, deep down, we know to be wrong. We have bifurcated identities, split from the world, from others and, ultimately, from our own whole natures. Estranged from the Earth, we struggle to see the world that enfolds and sustains us as a sacred community, carrying on with practices that we know to be harmful and exploitative. The problem is that, socially and structurally, we are locked within those destructive patterns of behaviour. We need a new story, one that integrates the material and spiritual dimensions our lives within new patterns of behaviour. This story will not just enlighten and inform but inspire, enthuse, and enliven, motivating people to change their behaviours and reorient their practices for the new Age of Ecology based upon union between the human and earth communities

Theology, Prophecy and Politics in Dante

Principally this thesis will deal with defining, accounting for, and examining, the relationship between the theological and the political in Dante's use of prophecy. It will be demonstrated that it is an over-riding feature of Dante’s thought in both the Monarchia and the Commedia that the only remedy against cupidity, and the damage it does to the world, is ecclesiastical poverty combined with imperial power. This thesis will show that much of the urgency and passion with which Dante communicates his political and social message in the Commedia, which seems to advocate both ecclesiastical poverty and imperial power as prerequisites for the ideal human society, is through his use of prophecy and of prophetic language. I demonstrate the way in which contemporary responses to the Old Testament prophets and the book of Revelation seem to have influenced Dante’s prophetic manner, but also seeks to highlight the unique nature of Dante’s response to the currents of thought he encountered, in particular the adoption of religious prophecy as the means by which some of the most innovative aspects of his political thought are articulated

True flesh: pilgrimage, measure, and perfecting the human in Dante’s 'Commedia'

Critics of Dante’s Commedia have frequently maintained that the 14th-century poem depicts a “pilgrimage” in the sense of a journey to God, undertaken both in imitation of the actual practice of pilgrimage to holy sites such as Jerusalem and Santiago de Compostela, as well as of the Biblical Exodus, a journey from the exile of earthly life to the true patria of Heaven. Yet, since the middle of the 20th century, this label has been taken for granted, without acknowledging a pivotal characteristic that determines both these historical precedents which is mirrored in Dante’s text: the human body. This study maintains that the Commedia should be read according to Dante’s understanding of the term “peregrinatio,” the Latin word from which our English “pilgrimage” derives. Properly speaking, while the human body was considered the source of man’s alienation from God, it is conversely also its source of potential inclusion through the figure of Christ, who, through the Incarnation, partook of both human and divine natures. Peregrinatio manifests this process of salvation through movement in imitation of Christ, allowing for the proper reintegration of humanity in the order of the universe and for the true revelation of man’s resemblance to Christ that is revealed in the poem’s final vision of God. Chapters 1-3 contextualize Dante’s understanding of peregrinatio in both his works and broader medieval thought. Chapter 1 reveals how the entire journey of the Commedia is framed by the experience of Christ and how the reflection of the Incarnation in the character Dante enables the potential for salvation. By analyzing the etymology and history of the term—originally denoting exile and travel in Roman culture, but then theologized to humanity’s ontological state by the Church Fathers—we can see how Dante’s understanding of the process was more nuanced than critics typically attest in their use of the labels “pilgrim” or “pilgrimage.” Dante utilizes the polysemic nature of the word to portray the Commedia as the praxis of peregrinatio, a process of recognizing one’s resemblance to Christ. Chapter 2 continues by focusing on how the above process manifests as the journey of physical movement presented in the poem. Classical usage of peregrinatio often indicated motion in space, a meaning that was transferred to the historical phenomenon of pilgrimage. Dante considered pilgrimage as travel to a holy place in order to access the sacred, which was done, as the cult of relics indicates, through the body and the sense of touch. Dante’s understanding of this action is then contextualized by reading the relationship constructed between the body and sacred space in pilgrimage literature. These accounts reveal that people in the Middle Ages understood space through a sense of personal interaction and physical presence, emerging from primarily walking around and the absence of maps. This, connected with the practice of measuring holy spaces and relics, demonstrates that the body was thought to be necessary in order to access the sacred and reveal one’s resemblance to God. Chapter 3 utilizes the understanding of peregrinatio furnished by the first two chapters to look specifically at the Commedia. The Christological dimension of this process informs Dante’s journey from the first verses of the Inferno, where Dante repeatedly encounters signs of salvation through Christ much as pilgrims who journeyed to the Holy Land. The presence of these factors reveals that Dante recognized his journey as having to be carried out in imitation of Christ, and that this informs the potential of his text to lead its readers to salvation as well. The peculiarity of this conception emerges in the fact that Dante, through the presence of his human body, permanently alters the landscape of Hell, something that no one before or after has done, with the sole exception of Christ. Chapter 4-6 turn their focus to the end point of this process of peregrinatio experienced in the final vision of God at the end of the Commedia and the identification of man’s image in God through the Incarnation. Dante expresses this relationality through a simile of a geometer trying to measure a circle. While it is typically argued that this is merely a reference to the impossible geometric problem of squaring the circle, that reading does not attend to the use of “measure” and its precedents in Dante’s other works. Instead, measure was understood through a complex set of dynamics that permeated various aspects of medieval life, from intellectual activity to trade. In this regard, Dante utilizes the term to express how the imitation of Christ central to the process of peregrinatio actually takes place: by establishing an intertwined metaphysical and ethical understanding of humanity. Chapter 4 examines the history of the idea of measure as it would have been known to Dante, from: the Bible, Greek philosophy, Christian theology, courtly ethics, and material culture. While each thinker and tradition expresses different aims, measure is universally used to denote a sense of a larger order to which man wishes to belong. Specifically in the Christian tradition, this manifests through a history of interpretation around Wisdom 11:21’s statement of the universe being ordered by God in “measure, number, and weight.” This reveals itself to operate by the same mechanics of peregrinatio, as this triad was seen as a trace of Trinity in all creation and as dictating the ways in which ethical behavior can comport oneself to Christ. Chapter 5 utilizes these precedents to examine Dante’s complex use of the term measure in his works outside of the Commedia. Particularly in his growing education after his exile in 1301, Dante became increasingly aware of the intellectual richness behind the concept, which he seeks to ground specifically in Aristotelian thought and scholastic theology, predominantly in the Convivio and the Monarchia. The use of measure in both these texts displays Dante’s grasp of its Christological richness, where proper ethical action “measured” by the standard of Christ can induce the ontological change that was the goal of peregrinatio, allowing for participation in the divine order. Chapter 6 returns to the Commedia and the simile of the geometer to contextualize the 20 uses of forms of misura (measure) in the poem according to Dante’s previous utilization of the term and the intellectual inheritance discussed in chapter 4. This reading reveals that, contrary to typical scholarship on the word, Dante does not use it as an Italian rendering of the Aristotelian mean—the conception of virtue as the middle ground between the extremes of vice—but rather views misura as an active process conceived through Christ. Through a series of uses of the verb “to measure,” Dante depicts the culmination of the process of peregrinatio to express the goal of full personhood, body and soul, in the image of Christ, and thereby as a return to the full potential for which humanity was created