Alejo Carpentier and the Musical Text

Widely known for his novelsEl reino de este mundo (The Kingdom of this World) and Los pasos perdidos (The Lost Steps), the Swiss-born Cuban writer Alejo Carpentier (1904-1980) incorporated music in his fiction extensively, for instance in titles, in analogies with musical forms, in scenes depicting performances, recordings and broadcasts, and in characters' discussions of musical issues. Chornik's study focuses on Carpentier's writings from a musicological perspective, bridging intermediality and intertextuality through an examination of music as formative, as form, and as performed. The emphasis lies on the novelsLos pasos perdidos, El acoso (The Chase),Concierto barroco (Baroque Concerto) andLa consagracion de la primavera (The Rite of Spring), and on his unknown essayLos origenes de la musica y la musica primitiva (The Origins of Music and Primitive Music), the repository of ideas forLos pasos perdidos, included here for the first time as facsimile and in English translation. Chornik's study will appeal to scholars and students in literary studies, cultural studies, musicology and ethnomusicology, and to a specifically interdisciplinary readership.