Cover not available
Article published In:
Target
Vol. 9:2 (1997) ► pp.234–269

Intercode Translation

Words and Music in Opera

| SIGV The Hague & University of Innsbruck

Opera is a synchronization of different media of artistic expression, with a dual emphasis on music and drama. Operatic scholarship has voiced different views on the fusion of verbal and musical discourse, the two extremes being logocentrism and musicocentrism. The interlingual translation of the verbal subtext is a complex enterprise subject to multiple constraints. By focusing on its intricacies in some detail (the anatomy of the human vocal apparatus, high/ low pitches, stress, prosodic and intonational patterns, rhyme, etc., together determining the singability of the libretto), I hope that the discussion will shed light on the manifold problems involved in opera translation. The theoretical remarks are exemplified in an analysis of selected passages from Das Rheingold, by Richard Wagner.

Article outline
  • Introductory Remarks
  • Words and Music
  • Intersemiotic Translation
  • Opera Translation
  • Richard Wagner
  • Wagner's Das Rheingold
  • Concluding Remarks
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 1 January 1997
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/target.9.2.03gor
References
Adorno, T.W.
([1952] 1964) Versuch über Wagner. München and Zurich: Droemer Knaur.Google Scholar
Apter, Ronnie
1985 "A Peculiar Burden: Some Technical Problems of Translating Opera for Performance in English". Meta 30:4. 309-319.   DOI logoGoogle Scholar
1989 "The Impossible Takes a Little Longer: Translating Opera into English". Translation Review 311. 27-37.   DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Barnstone, Willis
1994 "Translation Theory with a Semiotic Slant". Semiotica 102:1–2 89–100Google Scholar
Benveniste, Émile
1985 "The Semiology of Language". Robert E. Innis, ed. & intro.. Semiotics: An Introductory Anthology. Bloomington, IN:Indiana University Press 1985 228–246. [Advances in Semiotics.]Google Scholar
Dalmonte, Rossana
1987 "The Concept of Expansion in Theories Concerning the Relationships between Music and Poetry". Semiotica 66:1–3. 111–128.Google Scholar
Darcy, Warren
1993 Wagner's Das Rheingold. Oxford: Oxford University Press/Clarendon Press. [Studies in Musical Genesis and Structure.]Google Scholar
Deledalle-Rhodes, Janice
1996 "The Transposition of the Linguistic Sign in Peirce's Contributions to The Nation ". Transactions of the Charles S. Peirce Society 32:4. 668–682.Google Scholar
Donington, Robert
1992 Opera and Its Symbols: The Unity of Words, Music, and Staging. New Haven, CO: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Gorlée, Dinda L.
1989 "Wittgenstein, Translation, and Semiotics". Target 1:1. 69–94.   DOI logoGoogle Scholar
1994 Semiotics and the Problem of Translation, with Special Reference to the Semiotics of Charles S. Price. Amsterdam and Atlanta, GA: Rodopi. [Approaches to Translation Studies, 12.]Google Scholar
1996 "Opera Translation: Charles Peirce Translating Richard Wagner". Eero Tarasti, ed. Musical Semiotics in Growth. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press and Imatra: International Semiotics Institute 1996 413–441 [Acta Fennica, 4.]Google Scholar
Graham, Arthur
1989 "A New Look at Recital Song Translation". Translation Review 291. 31–37.   DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hess-Lüttich, Ernst W.B
1986 "Multimedia Communication". Sebeok 1986:1. 573–577. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Honolka, Kurt
1978 Opernübersetzungen: Zur Geschichte der Verdeutschung musiktheatralischer Texte. Wilhelmshaven: Heinrichshofen. [Taschenbücher zur Musikwis-senschaft, 20.]Google Scholar
Hosokawa, Shuhei
1986 "Opera". Sebeok 1986:2. 649–651.Google Scholar
Huber, Herbert
1988 Richard Wagner, Der Ring des Nibelungen: Nach seinem mythologischen, theologischen und philosophischen Gehalt Vers fur Vers erklart. Weinheim: VCH. [Acta Humaniora.]Google Scholar
Jakobson, Roman
1959 "On Linguistic Aspects of Translation". Reuben A. Brower, ed. On Translation. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press 1959 232-239. [Harvard Studies in Comparative Literature, 23.]   DOI logoGoogle Scholar
1960 "Concluding Statement: Linguistics and Poetics". Thomas A. Sebeok, ed. Style in Language. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press 1960 350–377.Google Scholar
1971 Selected Writings II: Word and Language. The Hague and Paris: Mouton.Google Scholar
Langer, Susanne K.
1953 Feeling and Form: A Theory of Art Developed From Philosophy in a New Key. New York: Scribner's Sons.Google Scholar
Leithauser, Brad
1996 "Here To Stay". The New York Review of Books 43–16 (October 16). 35–38.Google Scholar
Littlefield, Richard
ed. 1991 Music as Narrative. Indiana Theory Review. 12 [special issues]. 35–38.
Martinez, José Luiz
ed. 1996 Music as Narrative. Indiana Theory Review. 12 [special issues]. 35–38.
Meeús, Nicolas
1993 "De la forme de l'expression musicale". S: European Journal for Semiotic Studies . 5 4. 35–38.
Mosley, David L.
1990 Gesture, Sign, and Song: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Schumann's Liederkreis Opus 39. New York, etc.: Peter Lang. [New Connections: Studies in Interdisciplinarity, 3.]Google Scholar
Mukařovsky, Jan
1989 Kunst, Poetik, Semiotik, ed. & pref.. Kvetoslav Chvatík; tr. Erika AnnuB and Walter AnnuB. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp.Google Scholar
Nida, Eugene A
1964 Toward a Science of Translating, with Special Reference to Principles and Procedures Involved in Bible Translating. Leiden: E.J. Brill.Google Scholar
Nieder, Christoph
1989 Von der "Zauberflöte" zum "Lohengrin": Das deutsche Opern-libretto in der ersten Halfte des 19. Jahrhunderts. Stuttgart: J.B. Metzlersche Verlagsbuchhandlung. [Germanistische Abhandlungen, 64.] DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Orlando, Francesco
1975 "Propositions pour une sémantique du leitmotiv dans L'anneau des Nibelungen". Musique en jeu 171. 73-86.Google Scholar
Ostwald, Peter F
1973 The Semiotics of Human Sound. The Hague and Paris: Mouton. [Approaches to Semiotics, 36.] DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Pagnini, Marcello
1994 Parola/Musica. Université di Urbino: Centro Internazionale di Semiotica e di Linguistica. [Documenti di lavoro e pre-pubblicazioni, 236, serie E.]Google Scholar
Pederson, Sanna
1996 "The Methods of Musical Narratology". Semiotica. 110: 1–2. 179–196.Google Scholar
Peirce, Charles S.
1931–1966 Collected Papers of Charles Sanders Peirce, eds. Charles Hartshorne, Paul Weiss and Arthur W. Burks. 81 vols. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press, Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Reiß, Katharina
1971 Möglichkeiten und Grenzen der Übersetzungskritik: Kategorien und Kriterien für eine sachgerechte Beurteilung von Übersetzungen. München: Max Hueber. [Hueber Hochschulereihe, 12.]Google Scholar
1977 "Texttypen, Übersetzungstypen und die Beurteilung von Übersetzungen". Lebende Sprachen31. 97–100. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Rodda, Anne E
1981 "Translating for Music: The German Art Song". Marilyn GaddisRose, ed. Translation Spectrum: Essays in Theory and Practice. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press 1981 147–159.Google Scholar
Rudder, Michael Elgin
1993 "An Investigation of Critical Factors in Opera Translation: A Study of English Versions of 'La Bohème'". Dissertation Abstracts International (DAI)53(9): 3197A. Georgetown University 1992.Google Scholar
Ruwet, Nicolas
1972 Langage, Musique, Poésie. Paris: Seuil. [Collection Poétique.]Google Scholar
Scher, Steven Paul
1982 "Literature and Music". Jean-Pierre Barricelli and Joseph Gibaldi, eds. Interrelations of Literature. New York: The Modern Language Association of America 1982 225–250.Google Scholar
Sebeok, Thomas A.
gen. ed. 1986 Encyclopedic Dictionary of Semiotics. 3 vols. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. [Approaches to Semiotics, 73.]Google Scholar
1991 Semiotics in the United States. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press. [Advances in Semiotics.]Google Scholar
Spencer, Stewart
1985 "The Language and Sources of 'The Ring'". Wagner 1985: 31–38.Google Scholar
Stein, Jack Madison
1971 Poem and Music in the German Lied from Gluck to Hugo Wolf Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.   DOI logoGoogle Scholar
1973 Poem and Music in the German Liedfrom Gluck to Hugo Wolf. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Google Scholar
Tarasti, Eero
1987 "On the Modalities of Opera". Semiotica 66: 1–3. 155–168.Google Scholar
Wagner, Richard.
[1852] 1984 Oper und Drama. ed. & comm. Klaus Kropfinger. Klaus Kropfinger. Stuttgart: Philipp Reclam Jr.Google Scholar
Wagner, Richard, n.d
Das Rheingold. Vorspiel zu der Trilogie: Der Ring des Nibelungen.Text mit den hauptsächlichsten Leitmotiven und Notenbeispielen ed. Dr. Julius Burghold Mainz, London, Paris and Brüssel B. Schott's Sönne In-text references take the format Rheingold: page#
Wagner, Richard, n.d.-a
Das Rheingold: Orchesterpartitur. English translation by Frederick Jameson; version française par Alfred Ernst. Mainz, London,Brüssel and Paris: B. Schott's Sönne.[In-text references take the format Jameson 1896: page#].
Wagner, Richard
1976 The Ring of the Nibelung. German text with English translation by Andrew Porter. London: Faber Music Ltd. in association with Faber & Faber Ltd. [In-text references take the format Porter 1976: page#]Google Scholar
1983 Der Ring des Nibelungen—The Ring of the Nibelung: Das Rheingold—The Rhinegold. Dual-language piano-vocal score tr. from the German into English by Mark Herman and Ronnie Apter. [Available from the translators: 5748 West Brooks Road, Shepherd, MI 48883–9202, USA.] [In-text references take the format Herman/Apter 1983: page#]Google Scholar
1985 The Rhinegold—Das Rheingold. London: John Calder Publishers. [English National Opera Guides, 35.]Google Scholar
Weisstein, Ulrich
1961 "The Libretto as Literature". Books Abroad 351. 16–22.   DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Wittgenstein, Ludwig.
[1921] 1988 Tractatus logico-philosophicussourc, tr.. D.F. Pears B.F. and McGuiness. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
[1953] 1968 Philosophical Investigations. eds. G.E.M. Anscombe and R. Rhees, tr. G.E.M. Anscombe. Rprt. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.Google Scholar
Cited by

Cited by 23 other publications

Abu-Rayyash, Hussein & Ahmad S. Haider
2023. Options for Translating English Movie Lyrics Into Arabic: A Case study of Netflix Arabic Subtitles of 60 Lyrics. SAGE Open 13:2 DOI logo
Al-Azzam, Bakri & Aladdin Al-Kharabsheh
2012. Jordanian Folkloric Songs in Translation: Mousa’s Song They Have Passed by Without a Company as a Case Study. Meta 56:3 ► pp. 557 ff. DOI logo
Desblache, Lucile
2019. Music and Translation Today. In Music and Translation, ► pp. 57 ff. DOI logo
Gorlée, Dinda L.
2002. Griegs swan songs. Semiotica 2002:142 DOI logo
Gorlée, Dinda L.
2011. Chapter 8: Traduttore traditore?. In Semiotics Continues to Astonish, ► pp. 161 ff. DOI logo
Gorlée, Dinda L.
2015. From words and sentences to interjections: The anatomy of exclamations in Peirce and Wittgenstein. Semiotica 2015:205 ► pp. 37 ff. DOI logo
Gorlée, Dinda L. & Arjan van Baest
1997. Kaindl, Klaus. 1995. Die Oper als Textgestalt: Perspektiven einer interdisziplinären Übersetzungswissenschaft. Target. International Journal of Translation Studies 9:2 ► pp. 374 ff. DOI logo
Güven, Mine
2019. Why “Sway” Again? Prosodic Constraints and Singability in Song (Re)translation. In Studies from a Retranslation Culture [New Frontiers in Translation Studies, ], ► pp. 177 ff. DOI logo
Jia, Hongwei
2017. Roman Jakobson’s Triadic Division of Translation Revisited. Chinese Semiotic Studies 13:1 ► pp. 31 ff. DOI logo
Jiménez, Rocío García
2017. Song translation and AVT. Babel. Revue internationale de la traduction / International Journal of Translation 63:2 ► pp. 200 ff. DOI logo
Low, P.
2006. Song Translation. In Encyclopedia of Language & Linguistics, ► pp. 511 ff. DOI logo
Low, Peter
2008. Translating Songs that Rhyme. Perspectives 16:1-2 ► pp. 1 ff. DOI logo
Maria Rędzioch-Korkuz, Anna
2018. Opera surtitling in Poland: an uncharted area of AVT?. Poznan Studies in Contemporary Linguistics 54:2 ► pp. 281 ff. DOI logo
Mateo, MARTA
2001. PERFORMING MUSICAL TEXTS IN A TARGET LANGUAGE: THE CASE OF SPAIN. Across Languages and Cultures 2:1 ► pp. 31 ff. DOI logo
Mateo, Marta
2020. Multilingual libretti across linguistic borders and translation modes. In Opera in Translation [Benjamins Translation Library, 153], ► pp. 337 ff. DOI logo
OKYAYUZ, Şirin & Mümtaz KAYA
2021. Türkçe Sözlü Hafif Batı Müziğinin Oluşumunda Fransızcadan Çevrilen Şarkılarda ‘Yerli Ve Millî Aşk’a Dair. Çeviribilim ve Uygulamaları Dergisi 2021:30 ► pp. 133 ff. DOI logo
Opperman, Suezette, Marlie van Rooyen & Kobus Marais
2018. An inter-semiotic approach to translation: Leonard Cohen in Afri-Kaans. Literator 39:1 DOI logo
Orero, Pilar & Anna Matamala
2007. Accessible Opera: Overcoming Linguistic and Sensorial Barriers. Perspectives 15:4 ► pp. 262 ff. DOI logo
Rędzioch-Korkuz, Anna M.
2020. Towards a semiotic model of interlingual translation. Semiotica 2020:236-237 ► pp. 215 ff. DOI logo
Sorby, Stella
2010. Translating western musicals into Chinese: Adapting to the reception. Journal of Adaptation in Film & Performance 3:2 ► pp. 185 ff. DOI logo
Sorby, Stella
2019. The dynamic socio-cultural interactions in translating musicals’ librettos. Babel. Revue internationale de la traduction / International Journal of Translation 65:5 ► pp. 696 ff. DOI logo
Wilson-deRoze, Karen
2020. Translating Wagner’s Versmelodie. In Opera in Translation [Benjamins Translation Library, 153], ► pp. 243 ff. DOI logo
Şerban, Adriana & Kelly Kar Yue Chan
2020. Introduction. In Opera in Translation [Benjamins Translation Library, 153], ► pp. 1 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 8 april 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.