Poetic Intonation in the Poems by Alexander Blok and Sergei Yesenin: More on the Methodology of Analysis
Abstract
In poetry, like in music, the poetic sounding has a semantic meaning and the meaning captured in a poem is “incapable of being renamed”, that is, expressed in any other way. This is what A.V. Mikhailov defines as “musicality”. Based on the concept of musicality in poetry, the article puts forward an original method of analysing poetic intonation. It can be used to identify individual features of the sound structure in a verse and, as a consequence, its emotional tone. The comparative analysis of two poems by A. Blok and S. Yesenin found the difference between the poetic intonation—a sound meaning— chosen by the authors. The manifestation of verse (rhythmic) and conversational (phrasal) intonations shapes the form of the poetic text either closer to the immanent musical or speech patterns.
The analysis of the sound meaning in a verse combines linguistic and musicological approaches. This methodology facilitates the retrieval of deep “musical” patterns of the poetic text and their “reincarnation” in a composer's interpretation. The two traditional types of verse recitation, i.e., conventional, done in an actor's fashion (expressively declamatory), and authorial (monotonously melodious, rhythmised) are fundamentally different approaches to the sound embodiment of the text, which also applies to the interpretations made by composers. The poetic (“rhythmic”) intonation is used to show the difference between poetry and prose; hence, it is a fundamental condition for the emotional, semantic and musical unity of the poetic text. In this connection, the article attempts to find a functional equivalent to the poetic intonation in music written to this poetic text so that the words absorbed by music regain their artistic unity.
Keywords: musicality of poetry, poetic intonation, sound and rhythm in a poem, rhythmic structure of verse, rhythmic
For citation: Oparina Ju. M. Poetic Intonation in the Poems by Alexander Blok and Sergei Yesenin: More on the Methodology of Analysis [Electronic source]. In: Sovremennye problemy muzykoznaniya / Contemporary Musicology, 2021, no. 4, pp. 65–78. (In Russ.) DOI: 10.56620/2587-9731-2021-4-065-078
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.56620/2587-9731-2021-4-065-078
Copyright (c) 2021 Julia M. Oparina
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