Music & Literature

Music and Literature

You know spring has arrived when butterflies glide gracefully across the sky and flowers bloom. You know it has come when the gentle breeze whistles a subtle tune and the sun peaks through the clouds. Last week, we attended a webinar for High Achieving students about the relationship between music and literature. We spent an hour and a half with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra listening to music by Schumann and learning about his inspiration from literature. There were lots of overlapping ideas about the way both music and writing can evoke intense emotions in their audiences and mental images about what we read and hear.

The motif of the butterfly was discussed and we chatted about its relevance to the novel we’re currently studying in Year 9 English: Catching Teller Crow. In it, Beth is referred to as a ‘butterfly girl’ who has died and her ghost is stuck on ‘this side’ as long as her father can’t move past his grief. Throughout the story, she undergoes a metamorphosis and transforms from ghost to a ‘teller’ who is able to walk on another side of existence, the way a caterpillar metamorphoses into a butterfly, experiencing a completely different perspective on its existence.  

We compared this to Schumann’s Papillons Op.2 (‘papillon’ of course being French for ‘butterfly’) and the representations in music of the coming-of-age genre, the transformations young people make as they evolve into adults. This got Mrs. G-P thinking about the strange year our young people are having in their journey towards adulthood, but they’ve risen to the challenge and have made the best of their situations. If our future is in their hands, I think it’s looking as bright as a butterfly.

Why don’t you make yourself a cup of tea, find a peaceful spot in the spring sunshine and try it yourself…see what images you can visualise and what emotions are evoked by listening to this clip of Schumann’s Papillons: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e0kVhtRcis4

Chrystin Gosios 9S and Felicity Graham-Prowse.