The translation of musical texts – or music-linked translation, in Harai Golomb's terms (2005: 121–162) – started to receive attention from translation researchers only in the last decade. One reason for this may be the methodological challenges that its study entails, for it redraws traditional boundaries such as those between ‘translation’, ‘adaptation’ or ‘rewriting’, it questions essential concepts such as ‘authorship’ or ‘source-text’ and it clearly calls for a multidisciplinary approach (Susam-Sarajeva 2008: 188–9). Three monographic publications have now joined the relatively small group of articles so far devoted to Music and Translation, which evinces a steadily growing interest in the topic: Gorlée 2005 and Susam-Sarajeva 2008, which show that the translation of musical texts goes well beyond opera, taking multiple forms – from the (literal) translations of CD inserts or printed libretti to sung translation, the rewriting of song lyrics, surtitling, subtitling or dubbing, and Minors 2013, whose studies expand the concept of translation, to incorporate the transferences between music and text, as well as the visual arts. This entry will present an overview of the field, focusing mainly on the translation of opera in its various forms – as it has attracted most attention –, and that of songs and musicals.

References

Desblache, Lucile

2007 “Music to my ears, but words to my eyes? Text, opera and their audiences.” In A Tool for Social Integration? Audiovisual Translation from Different Angles, Aline Remael & Josélia Neves (eds). Special Issue of Linguistica Antverpiensia 6: 155–170.  TSB

Díaz Cintas, Jorge, Orero, Pilar & Remael, Aline

(eds) 2007 Media for All: Subtitling for the Deaf, Audio Description and Sign Language. Amsterdam: Rodopi.  TSB

Di Giovanni, Elena

2008 “The American film musical in Italy: Translation and non-translation.” The Translator 14 (2): 295–318.  TSB

Franzon, John

2005 “Musical comedy translation: Fidelity and format in the Scandinavian My Fair Lady.” In Gorlée (ed.), 263–298.

Franzon, John

2008 “Choices in song translation: Singability in print, subtitles and sung performances.” The Translator 14 (2): 373–399.

Golomb, Harai

2005 “Music-linked translation (MLT) and Mozart's operas: Theoretical, textual and practical approaches.” In Dinda L. Gorlée (ed.), 121–161.

Gorlée, Dinda L

(ed.) 2005 Song and Significance: Virtues and Vices of Vocal Translation. Amsterdam/New York: Rodopi.  TSB

Herman, Mark & Apter, Ronnie

1991 “Opera translation.” In Translation: Theory and Practice. Tension and Interdependence [ATA Scholarly Monograph Series 5], Mildred L. Larson (ed.), 100–119. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins.  TSB

Kaindl, Klaus

1995 Die Oper als Textgestalt: Perspektiven einer interdisziplinären Übersetzungswissenschaft. Tübingen: Staufenburg Verlag Brigitte Narr.  TSB

Kaindl, Klaus

2005 “The plurisemiotics of pop song translation: Words, music, voice and image.” In Gorlée (ed.), 235–262.

Low, Peter

2013 “Purposeful Translating: The Case of Britten's Vocal Music.” In Minors (ed.), 69–79.

Low, Peter

2005 “The Pentathlon approach to translating songs.” In Gorlée (ed.), 185–212.  TSB

Marschall, Gottfried

(ed.) 2004 La traduction des livrets: Aspects théoriques, historiques et pragmatiques. Paris: Presses de l’Université Paris-Sorbonne.

Matamala, Anna and Orero, Pilar

2008 “Opera Translation. An Annotated Bibliography.” The Translator 14 (2): 427–451..  TSB

Mateo, Marta

2007 “Surtitling today: New uses, attitudes and developments.” Linguistica Antverpiensia 6: 135–154.  TSB

Mateo, Marta

2008 “Anglo-American musicals in Spanish theatres.” The Translator 14 (2): 319–342.  TSB

Minors, Helen Julia

(ed.) 2013 Music, Text and Translation. London: Bloomsbury (Bloomsbury Advances in Translation).

Susam-Sarajeva, Sebnem

(ed.) 2008  Translation and Music . Special Issue of The Translator 14 (2)..  TSB

Virkkunen, Riita

2004 “The source text of opera surtitles.” Meta 49 (1): 89–97.