THE DIALOG OF LITERATURE AND MUSIC IN ALDOUS HUXLEY’S WORKS
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17072/2037-6681-2017-2-90-96Keywords:
Huxley, music, point counter point, symbolism, text organization, Bach, Beethoven, Mozart.Abstract
The article analyzes the musical symbolism in Aldous Huxley’s works in the context of the author’s worldview in its evolution. The “musical constituent” of Aldous Huxley’s works is reflected both in the abundance of musical appeals, references, allusions, direct descriptions of musical performances (in the ekphrasis-like way) and in the text structure of the novel Point Counter Point (1928) organized according to the musical principal of counterpoint. The music of Mozart (Quintet in G-minor), Beethoven (Missa Solemnis, Quartet in A-minor) and Bach (Suite in B-minor, Brandenburg Concerto No. 4) plays a peculiar symbolic role in Aldous Huxley’s works. In his earlier writings these musical masterpieces symbolize a possible alternative to the universal chaos and the absolute existential uncertainty, and in this quality Quintet in G-minor has an important sense-making function in Huxley’s Antic Hay (1923), transforming through the complicated interaction of meanings and associations into the universal anthropological conclusion about the humanity. The plot of the Point Counter Point’s is organized in many aspects as the motion from Bach’s music at the beginning of the novel to Beethoven’s music at the end. In Huxley’s later works, in particular, in his latest utopian novel Island (1962) the role of Bach’s music, namely Brandenburg Concerto No. 4, reveals itself more ambivalent. This music is concurrently a symbol of the highest perfection, a background for the universal horror, and to some extent even something blessing this universal horror in the name of culture (the march of insects to the accompaniment of Brandenburg Concerto No. 4). It is noteworthy that the musical masterpieces treated in this article are also mentioned in Huxley’s letters in the similar sense.References
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