Carolyn Abbate
Encyclopedia
Carolyn Abbate is a musicologist whose research focuses primarily on the opera
tic repertory of the long 19th century, offering creative and innovative approaches to understanding these works critically and historically. Some of her more recent work has addressed topics such as film studies
and performance studies more generally.
in 1977. Whilst still an undergraduate at Yale, she reconstructed the score of Claude Debussy’s La chute de la maison Usher
(The Fall of the House of Usher)-- a work long regarded as unsalvageably incomplete. She continued her studies in Munich and Princeton, completing her PhD at Princeton University
under Paul Brainard in 1984. She took a position in the Music Department at Princeton that year, and was named a professor in 1991. She was awarded the Dent Medal of the Royal Musical Association in 1993, and received a Guggenheim Fellowship
in 1994. In 2005, she accepted an appointment at Harvard University
. Since the Fall of 2008, she has taught in the Music Department at the University of Pennsylvania
as the Christopher H. Browne Distinguished Professor of Music. She has also held appointments at the University of California, Berkeley
and the Freie Universität in Berlin.
's opera in 1861. A significant excerpt from this work was published in the Journal of the American Musicological Society in 1983. In 1990, she published a translation of Jean-Jacques Nattiez's Musicologie générale et sémiologie under the title Music and Discourse: Toward a Semiology of Music.
Her first monograph, Unsung Voices: Opera and Musical Narrative in the Nineteenth Century, was published by Princeton University Press in 1991 and has since proved one of the most provocative and influential recent musicological studies. In this book, Abbate explores the metaphor of musical "narrative" in six extended case studies. She describes her work as follows:
The six chapters that follow explore examples ranging from Paul Dukas
's Sorcerer's Apprentice to Mozart's Marriage of Figaro and Wagner's Ring, seeking out examples of narrative moments in music and developing critical apparatus based on an awareness of different registers of musical listening. For example, she pursues the question of operatic "deafness": asking whether and when we can claim that operatic characters hear the same music that we do, and what the consequences of such an awareness might be.
Her second monograph, In Search of Opera, reflects a close engagement with the aesthetic philosophy of Vladimir Jankélévitch
, resulting in an exploration of the intersections of the ineffable and the performative aspects of opera. As in Unsung Voices, Abbate proceeds through a series of case studies, this time exploring works ranging from Mozart's Magic Flute to Wagner's Parsifal and Debussy's Pelleas et Melisande. Abbate's engagement with Jankélévitch also yielded a translation of his La musique et l'ineffable in 2003, as well as a provocative article in Critical Inquiry entitled "Music--Drastic or Gnostic?" The latter offers a reappraisal of the value of hermeneutic musicological scholarship, favoring meditations on music as performance ("drastic") to those on music as encoded meaning ("gnostic").
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
tic repertory of the long 19th century, offering creative and innovative approaches to understanding these works critically and historically. Some of her more recent work has addressed topics such as film studies
Film studies
Film studies is an academic discipline that deals with various theoretical, historical, and critical approaches to films. It is sometimes subsumed within media studies and is often compared to television studies...
and performance studies more generally.
Life and career
Carolyn Abbate was born in New York, NY on November 20, 1955. She completed her BA at Yale UniversityYale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
in 1977. Whilst still an undergraduate at Yale, she reconstructed the score of Claude Debussy’s La chute de la maison Usher
La chute de la maison Usher (opera)
La chute de la maison Usher is an unfinished opera in one act by Claude Debussy to his own libretto, based on Edgar Allan Poe's short story The Fall of the House of Usher...
(The Fall of the House of Usher)-- a work long regarded as unsalvageably incomplete. She continued her studies in Munich and Princeton, completing her PhD at Princeton University
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....
under Paul Brainard in 1984. She took a position in the Music Department at Princeton that year, and was named a professor in 1991. She was awarded the Dent Medal of the Royal Musical Association in 1993, and received a Guggenheim Fellowship
Guggenheim Fellowship
Guggenheim Fellowships are American grants that have been awarded annually since 1925 by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the arts." Each year, the foundation makes...
in 1994. In 2005, she accepted an appointment at Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
. Since the Fall of 2008, she has taught in the Music Department at the University of Pennsylvania
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania is a private, Ivy League university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Penn is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States,Penn is the fourth-oldest using the founding dates claimed by each institution...
as the Christopher H. Browne Distinguished Professor of Music. She has also held appointments at the University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
and the Freie Universität in Berlin.
Musicological Work
Abbate's dissertation, entitled The "Parisian" Tannhäuser, addressed historical and aesthetic issues related to the Parisian premiere of Richard WagnerRichard Wagner
Wilhelm Richard Wagner was a German composer, conductor, theatre director, philosopher, music theorist, poet, essayist and writer primarily known for his operas...
's opera in 1861. A significant excerpt from this work was published in the Journal of the American Musicological Society in 1983. In 1990, she published a translation of Jean-Jacques Nattiez's Musicologie générale et sémiologie under the title Music and Discourse: Toward a Semiology of Music.
Her first monograph, Unsung Voices: Opera and Musical Narrative in the Nineteenth Century, was published by Princeton University Press in 1991 and has since proved one of the most provocative and influential recent musicological studies. In this book, Abbate explores the metaphor of musical "narrative" in six extended case studies. She describes her work as follows:
The six chapters that follow explore examples ranging from Paul Dukas
Paul Dukas
Paul Abraham Dukas was a French composer, critic, scholar and teacher. A studious man, of retiring personality, he was intensely self-critical, and he abandoned and destroyed many of his compositions...
's Sorcerer's Apprentice to Mozart's Marriage of Figaro and Wagner's Ring, seeking out examples of narrative moments in music and developing critical apparatus based on an awareness of different registers of musical listening. For example, she pursues the question of operatic "deafness": asking whether and when we can claim that operatic characters hear the same music that we do, and what the consequences of such an awareness might be.
Her second monograph, In Search of Opera, reflects a close engagement with the aesthetic philosophy of Vladimir Jankélévitch
Vladimir Jankélévitch
Vladimir Jankélévitch was a French philosopher and musicologist.- Biography :Jankélévitch was the son of Russian Jewish parents, who had emigrated to France....
, resulting in an exploration of the intersections of the ineffable and the performative aspects of opera. As in Unsung Voices, Abbate proceeds through a series of case studies, this time exploring works ranging from Mozart's Magic Flute to Wagner's Parsifal and Debussy's Pelleas et Melisande. Abbate's engagement with Jankélévitch also yielded a translation of his La musique et l'ineffable in 2003, as well as a provocative article in Critical Inquiry entitled "Music--Drastic or Gnostic?" The latter offers a reappraisal of the value of hermeneutic musicological scholarship, favoring meditations on music as performance ("drastic") to those on music as encoded meaning ("gnostic").
Select Publications
- "Tristan in the Composition of Pelleas," 19th Century Music, v (1981–2), 117–40
- "Der junge Wagner malgre lui: die frühen Tannhäuser-Entwurfe und Wagners 'übliche Nummern …'" Wagnerliteratur – Wagnerforschung: Munich 1983, 59–68
- "The Parisian Vénus and the Paris Tannhäuser," Journal of the American Musicological Society, xxxvi (1983), 73–123
- ed., with R. Parker: Analyzing Opera: Verdi and Wagner: Ithaca, NY, 1984 [incl. "Introduction: On Analyzing Opera," 1–26 [with R. Parker]; "Opera as Symphony: a Wagnerian Myth," 92–124]
- The Parisian Tannhäuser (diss., Princeton U., 1984)
- "Erik's Dream and Tannhäuser's Journey," Reading Opera: Ithaca, NY, 1986, 129–67
- "What the Sorcerer Said," 19th Century Music, xii (1988–9), 221–30
- "Elektra's Voice: Music and Language in Strauss's Opera," Richard Strauss: Elektra, ed. D. Puffett (Cambridge, 1989), 107–27
- "Wagner, 'On Modulation,' and Tristan," Cambridge Opera Journal, i (1989), 33–58
- "Dismembering Mozart," Cambridge Opera Journal, ii (1990), 187–95
- Music and Discourse: Toward a Semiology of Music (Princeton, NJ, 1990) [trans. of J.-J. Nattiez: Musicologie générale et sémiologie (Paris, 1987)]
- Unsung Voices: Opera and Musical Narrative in the Nineteenth Century (Princeton, NJ, 1991, 2/1996)
- "Opera, or The Envoicing of Women," Musicology and Difference: Gender and Sexuality in Music Scholarship, ed. R.A. Solie (Berkeley, 1993), 225–58
- "Mythische Stimmen, sterbliche Körper," Richard Wagner: “Der Ring des Nibelungen”: Ansichten des Mythos, ed. U. Bermbach und D. Borchmeyer (Stuttgart, 1995), 75–86
- In Search of Opera (Princeton, 2001)
- Music and the Ineffable (Princeton, 2003) [trans of. V. Jankélévitch: La musique et l'ineffable (Paris, 1961)]
- "Music--Drastic or Gnostic?" Critical Inquiry, xxx (2004), 505-536