“Play your broken music to my broken song?”
Contemporary Implications of Performing Schubert Lieder in English Translation
I recently completed my Doctorate at the University of Toronto under the supervision of Dr. Jeff Packman, Prof. Lydia Wong, and Prof. Steven Philcox. The full dissertation is available here.
My dissertation uses the songs of Franz Schubert as a foundational example to consider the contemporary implications of performing Lieder in English translation. Over the last 150 years such translations have been written, published, performed, and rationalized in a variety of ways. However, their “validity” is now broadly dismissed in both pedagogical and performance contexts. This begs the question: how did performance in the original language become an essential aspect of Lieder performance across the English-speaking world? In probing this question, my objective is to reimagine the possible role of such a translational approach in mediating, or even repairing something that is currently “broken” in Anglophone encounters with Lieder.
To fulfil this objective, an initial discussion of ontologies of Lieder attempts to examine singing translations alongside other approaches that extend, transform or otherwise challenge the traditional boundaries of the genre, and the ways that these approaches aim to satisfy less dominant notions of “authenticity”. This is followed by an examination of the historical and contemporary debate and attempts to establish adequate translational methodologies amongst a range of aesthetic, nationalistic, and theoretical issues. In addition to this engagement with public documents (including translations, paratextual materials, articles and reviews), I solicited the views of a range of contemporary stakeholders on the implications of the practice and assembled a collection of thirty-three distinct singing translations of “Der Leiermann”, the final song of Schubert’s 1828 song cycle, Winterreise (D911, op. 89). This collection serves to demonstrate a plurality of translational approaches, the inevitable subjectivity of the translational role, the impossibility of a “definitive” translation, and new avenues of expression engendered by that lack of definition.
In considering “the English Lied”, this study has two aims: to provide insight into the complicated relationship we have with language and meaning in this repertoire, and to prompt a reconsideration of singing in translation: one that does not limit itself to concepts of fidelity and failure, but rather opens itself to the creative possibilities of interacting with the repertoire in this way.
I interviewed or corresponded with over thirty prominent stakeholders in the course of my research, including pianists Graham Johnson, Helmut Deutsch, Warren Jones, Martin Katz, Iain Burnside, Christopher Glynn, Rena Sharon, Sholto Kynoch and Erika Switzer; singers Roderick Williams, Barbara Hannigan, Mark Padmore, Toby Spence, Tyler Duncan and Ema Nikolovska; songwriters Sara Slean and Gabriel Kahane; composers Bram Gielen and Norbert Palej; scholars Katy Hamilton and Susan Youens; film-maker/director David Paul; poet Nick Drake; and translators Richard Stokes, Amanda Holden and Jeremy Sams. As you might imagine their views are diverse and fascinating on this topic.
Here is a preliminary reading list if you’re interested in thinking about singing in translation:
1915 Sigmund Spaeth ‘Translating to Music’ published in The Musical Quarterly, 1:2 Pages 291–298
1921 A.H.F. Strangways ‘Song-translating’ Music and Letters Pages 211-224
1921 M-D. Calvocoressi ‘The Practice of Song-Translation’ Music and Letters Vol. 2, No. 4 (Oct., 1921) Pages 314-322
1922 Herbert Peyser ‘Some observations on translation’ The Musical Quarterly Vol. 8, No. 3 (Jul., 1922) Pages 353-371
1931 Harry Plunkett-Green ‘Interpretation in Song’ pages 120-130, 139, 224
1952 Henry Drinker ‘On translating vocal texts’ The Musical Quarterly Pages 225-240
1969 W.H.Auden ’Notes on Music and Opera’ and ’Translating Opera Libretti (Written in collaboration with Chester Kallmann) from The Dyer’s Hand and Other Essays Vintage International, Random House Pages 465-474 and 483-499
1976 John Duke ‘Some Reflections on the Art Song in English’ American Music Teacher, Vol. 25, No. 4 (February-March 1976), Pages 26 and 29
1977 Andrew Porter ‘Song in Green’ New Yorker February 28
1989 Arthur Graham ’A New Look at Recital Song Translation’ published in Translation Review, 29:1, Pages 31-37
1993 Frederic Kirchberger ‘Sing Them In English!’ Volume 1 Translator’s Preface The Scarecrow Press
2003 Peter Low ‘Singable Translations of Songs’ Perspectives 11 (2) Pages 87-103
2003 Peter Low ‘Translating poetic songs: An attempt at a functional account of strategies’ Target 15 (1) Pages 95-115
2005 Peter Low ‘The Pentathlon approach to translating songs’ in Song and Significance: Virtues and Vices of Vocal Translation Rodopi Pages 185-212
2005 Dinda Lee Gorlee Ed. ‘Song and Significance: Virtues and Vices of Vocal Translation’
2008 Peter Low ‘Translating Songs that Rhyme’ published in Perspectives: Studies in Translatology, Vol. 16 No. 1&2 Pages 1-20
2008 Susam-Sarajeva Ed. ‘The Translator: Translation and Music’
2010 Paul O. Jenkins Chapter 7 ‘The Lovely Milleress and Stony Brook’ in ‘Richard Dyer-Bennett: The Last Minstrel’ University Press of Mississippi
2013 Helen Julia Minors Ed. ‘Music, Text and Translation’ Bloomsbury
2016 Ronnie Apter and Mark Herman ‘Translating for Singing: The theory, art, and craft of translating lyrics’ Bloomsbury Advances in Translation
I look forward to sharing more about the collection of translations soon!
