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Gradus ad Parnassum & PF
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I've been doing a bit more poking into Fux's Gradus ad Parnassum
and, more generally, the principles of counterpoint. Keeping in
mind Shade's emphasis on counterpoint and "not text but texture,"
I was pleased to encounter this description of Counterpoint on
Wikipedia:
"In music, counterpoint is a texture involving the simultaneous
sounding of separate melodies or lines 'against' each other, as
in polyphony."
The link to "texture" then leads to this:
"In musicology, texture is a precise term which refers to both
the number of voices in the music (also called 'parts' or
'musical lines'), and to the relationship between these voices....
Polyphony is a musical texture with multiple voices which are to some
extent independent from one another."
Interesting to me that Shade would use the musicical notions of
texture and counterpoint to so accurately (and unwittingly?)
describe the eventual text that will emerge. Moreover,isn't it
an amazing coincidence that after Shade's epiphany, a character
called Gradus (directly echoing Fux's treatise) then appears,
via Kinbote?
One possibility is that VN was simply hiding corresponding clues
in different spots within PF. Another possibility is that Shade's
consciousness is linked in more than coincidental ways with
Kinbote's consciousness. Boyd, I'm sure, would account for
this by employing his theory about Shade's ghost. Carolyn and
Tiffany would say it's because Shade and Kinbote share a brain.
Thoughts?
Matthew Roth
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and, more generally, the principles of counterpoint. Keeping in
mind Shade's emphasis on counterpoint and "not text but texture,"
I was pleased to encounter this description of Counterpoint on
Wikipedia:
"In music, counterpoint is a texture involving the simultaneous
sounding of separate melodies or lines 'against' each other, as
in polyphony."
The link to "texture" then leads to this:
"In musicology, texture is a precise term which refers to both
the number of voices in the music (also called 'parts' or
'musical lines'), and to the relationship between these voices....
Polyphony is a musical texture with multiple voices which are to some
extent independent from one another."
Interesting to me that Shade would use the musicical notions of
texture and counterpoint to so accurately (and unwittingly?)
describe the eventual text that will emerge. Moreover,isn't it
an amazing coincidence that after Shade's epiphany, a character
called Gradus (directly echoing Fux's treatise) then appears,
via Kinbote?
One possibility is that VN was simply hiding corresponding clues
in different spots within PF. Another possibility is that Shade's
consciousness is linked in more than coincidental ways with
Kinbote's consciousness. Boyd, I'm sure, would account for
this by employing his theory about Shade's ghost. Carolyn and
Tiffany would say it's because Shade and Kinbote share a brain.
Thoughts?
Matthew Roth
Search the archive: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/archives/nabokv-l.html
Contact the Editors: mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu
Visit Zembla: http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm
View Nabokv-L policies: http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm