Voices from the Unknown: The Fantastic in 19th century Music Between Music Insects and Autoparodies
Abstract
The Scherzo in Mendelssohn's Oktett (1825) is related to a part of Goethe's Faust I, the Walpurgisnachtstraum, where an orchestra of insects is playing during the witches Sabbath in fantastic ambience. The musical language uses several connotations (pianissimo, staccato, undefinited melody, quick tempo etc.) which definite the fantastic in sound realm; these connotations are very often associated to parodistic meanings, like in Die erste Walpurgisnacht (Goethe-Mendelssohn). In this respect, the insects too become usual characters in fantastic compositions; the essay tries to underline several common lines between literature and music, painting and music, fantastic and parody and explains how these elements appear in Verdi's Falstaffs and Nicolai's Lustigen Weiber insects, and how they survive in the instrumental music.
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