When we think of Iris Murdoch’s 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 Murdoch’s novels. This book will help readers to appreciate anew the sensuous nature of Iris Murdoch’s 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 Murdoch’s knowledge of music and her allusions to music throughout her work, and includes a survey of musical settings of her words by various composers.
Author(s): Gillian Dooley
Series: Iris Murdoch Today
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Year: 2022
Language: English
Pages: 247
City: Cham
Foreword
Acknowledgements
Praise for Listening to Iris Murdoch
Contents
About the Author
Abbreviations—Fictional Works by Iris Murdoch
Chapter 1: Listening to Iris Murdoch
Introduction
Music and Sound in Fiction: A Review of the Field
Music in Murdoch’s Life
Discussions of Music in Murdoch’s Philosophy
The Sound-Worlds in Murdoch’s Fiction
Part I: Music
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
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 philosopher’s pupil (1983)
Conclusion
Chapter 4: Musical Women and Unmusical Men
Introduction: ‘Of Course They Never Let the 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
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
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
Bruno’s dream: Synaesthesia and Perception
Nuns and soldiers
Conclusion
Part III: Settings
Chapter 7: ‘Just Bring Me the Composers’: Musical Settings of Iris Murdoch’s 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 A: Music Mentioned in Murdoch’s Fiction
Classical Composers
Vocal Music
Chronological List of Music Mentioned in Murdoch’s Fiction
Under the net (1954)
The flight from the enchanter (1956)
The sandcastle (1957)
‘Something special’ (short story) (1957)
The bell (1958)
A severed head (1961)
An unofficial rose (1962)
The unicorn (1963)
The Italian girl (1964)
The red and the green (1965)
The time of the angels (1966)
The nice and the good (1968)
Bruno’s dream (1969)
A fairly honourable defeat (1970)
An accidental man (1971)
The Black Prince (1973)
The sacred and profane love machine (1974)
A word child (1975)
Henry and Cato (1976)
The sea, the sea (1978)
Nuns and soldiers (1980)
The philosopher’s pupil (1983)
The good apprentice (1985)
The book and the brotherhood (1987)
The message to the planet (1989)
The green knight (1993)
Jackson’s dilemma (1995)
Appendix B: Items in Iris Murdoch’s Oxford Music Collection Held at Kingston University Library
Iris Murdoch’s Manuscript Notebooks of Songs
Anthologies, Collections, Scores Etc.
Classical
Traditional and National
Popular Music: Film, Cabaret, Theatre Etc.
Single Works
Classical
Popular Music: Film, Cabaret, Theatre Etc.
References
Index
