Musical characterisation plays an important role in Britten's operas. The aim of this study was to determine how Britten depicts the diverse, dualistic characters in Billy Budd through music. Ambiguity, which is characteristic of this opera, is the result of the manner in which the plot is portrayed musically through developing motives. The conflict between the diverse characters in Billy Budd is depicted by the thematic material. The musical ideas and motives change as the plot becomes more complex. The method of investigation was, in the first instance, to analyse the musical ideas associated with each character. Second, the manner in which these ideas change through the course of the opera was pointed out. The story does not only concern itself with the relationship between good and evil. The fate of the three main characters, Billy, Vere and Claggart, is precisely the opposite of their true nature. Who they really are, is not reflected in their doings, as depicted by the integrated themes. Billy, the innocent boy, kills. Vere, the father figure, doesn't protect Billy on the day of his conviction. Claggart, who manipulates to have his own way, can't avoid his own death. This study shows that Billy is represented by the stammer figure and Vere by the "Starry Vere" motive. Vere's inner conflict is depicted by the ambiguous combination of a major third and minor third interval. The confusion that eventually leads to Billy's demise is represented by intervals of a perfect fourth, associated with Claggart. During the course of the opera, Vere's music is infiltrated by Claggart's motives. Billy is represented in the opera by the woodwind instruments, Vere by the strings and Claggart by the brass instruments. / Thesis (M.Mus.)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2006.

There is no abstract available for this thesis.

Musical characterisation plays an important role in Britten's operas. The aim of this study was to determine how Britten depicts the diverse, dualistic characters in Billy Budd through music. Ambiguity, which is characteristic of this opera, is the result of the manner in which the plot is portrayed musically through developing motives. The conflict between the diverse characters in Billy Budd is depicted by the thematic material. The musical ideas and motives change as the plot becomes more complex. The method of investigation was, in the first instance, to analyse the musical ideas associated with each character. Second, the manner in which these ideas change through the course of the opera was pointed out. The story does not only concern itself with the relationship between good and evil. The fate of the three main characters, Billy, Vere and Claggart, is precisely the opposite of their true nature. Who they really are, is not reflected in their doings, as depicted by the integrated themes. Billy, the innocent boy, kills. Vere, the father figure, doesn't protect Billy on the day of his conviction. Claggart, who manipulates to have his own way, can't avoid his own death. This study shows that Billy is represented by the stammer figure and Vere by the "Starry Vere" motive. Vere's inner conflict is depicted by the ambiguous combination of a major third and minor third interval. The confusion that eventually leads to Billy's demise is represented by intervals of a perfect fourth, associated with Claggart. During the course of the opera, Vere's music is infiltrated by Claggart's motives. Billy is represented in the opera by the woodwind instruments, Vere by the strings and Claggart by the brass instruments. / Thesis (M.Mus.)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2006.

This essay examines three of Herman Melville’s shorter fictions: Bartleby, Benito Cereno and Billy Budd. An analysis and comparison is made of the forces of power relations and resistance between the main characters in the three stories. Foucault’s theories of power are used as a basis for the analysis. Apparent power structures such as law and military hierarchy are analysed, but the focus is on more subtle relations based on language, knowledge, conformity with norms, silence, capitalism and position. It is argued that, apart from the apparent power structures, one needs to consider the more subtle power relations and acts of resistance for an understanding in the shifts of power positions. The study examines how the resisting oppressed party in each of the three works of fiction ends up dead, and that on a first reading resistance may seem futile. A further examination of the seemingly re-established conventional order, however, reveals shifts in power positions, shifts that indicate instability in the norms of society. It is argued that positions of power are to some extent reversed in the studied works of fiction, where the dominant party ends up suffering.

FundaÃÃo Cearense de Apoio ao Desenvolvimento Cientifico e TecnolÃgico / LâÃcriture de Melville, mÃme aprÃs tout le temps passà et avec diverses interprÃtations, alaissà inquiets les lecteurs et la critique. Pour cela, afin de prÃserver ce qui la permet survivre, nous nâavons pas comme but Ãpuiser les visions possibles de lâoeuvre, bien au contraire, on prÃtend contribuer à lâoverture des possibilitÃs et des vÃritÃs à propos du dit e du non-dit prÃsent chez lâoeuvre de lâÃcrivain amÃricain, en ce que concerne les livres Bartleby, lâÃcrivain, Benito Cereno et Billy Budd. Dans notre Ãtude, le but central est penser les trois Ãcritures de Herman Melville à partir de leurs personnages-titres, mais qui ne sont pas les narrateurs de lâhistoire, de faÃon à perdre le pouvoir de dominer le destin de lâÃcriture. De telle faÃon, les personnages donnent plutÃt des indices que des paroles concrÃtes et sont entre le dit et le non-dit / A escrita de Melville, mesmo com o passar do tempo e apesar de tantas anÃlises de suas obras, ainda nÃo deixou de inquietar leitores e estudiosos. Por essa razÃo, para preservar o que na obra literÃria faz dela sobrevivente, o objetivo de nosso estudo nÃo à de forma alguma esgotar as visÃes que as obras permitem; pelo contrÃrio, pretendemos contribuir para a abertura de mais possibilidades de questionamentos e de verdades acerca do dito e do nÃo-dito intrÃnseco Ãs obras do escritor estadunidense, no que concerne ao estudo de Bartleby, o escrivÃo, Benito Cereno e Billy Budd. Objetivamos em nossa dissertaÃÃo investigar na escrita de Herman Melville os aspectos relacionados Ãs personagens, as quais possuem destaque no tÃtulo de cada obra, mas nunca sÃo narradoras de sua histÃria, de modo que sÃo incapazes de ter domÃnio sobre ela. Nesse sentido, as personagens mais insinuam do que realmente dizem, estÃo no limite entre o dito e o nÃo-dito.

This study examines how Herman Melville’s oeuvre interacts with Old Testament (OT) wisdom literature (the Books of Job, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes). Using recent historical findings on the rise of religious skepticism and the erosion of Biblical authority in both Europe and the United States, I read Melville as an author steeped in the theological controversies of the eighteenth-century. Specifically, I am interested in teasing out the surprising disavowals of overt religious skepticism in Melville’s writing. By tracing the so-called Solomonic wisdom tradition throughout Melville’s oeuvre, I argue that Melville had developed an epistemology of contemplation towards that body of Biblical texts. Scholarship has traditionally painted Melville as a subversive if not downright skeptical religious thinker. Most studies have produced authorial readings, using texts as forensic evidence to make assertions about the author’s psychology. Incidentally, such assessments have confirmed the narrative of Herman Melville as a grand failed author of the nineteenth century, while ignoring the ambivalent attitudes toward Biblical authority, textual history, and skepticism that emerge in Melville’s writing. The present study intervenes by re-addressing several procedural questions about Melville’s literary dealings with the Bible: How does Melville deal with the distinct topics of religion, theology, religious skepticism, and doubt? How does he think through the relationship between science and religion as well as that of personal religion and theology? I claim that Melville’s work can be read as a continuous contemplation of Biblical wisdom. His writing, I argue, deals productively rather than a destructive with the Bible, its textual history, and authority. Melville’s thinking on theological and religious subjects was not merely subversive but constructive. In mounting this argument, I contradict current scholarship that reads Melville as trying to invent a new American Bible. In contrast, I show how Melville’s philosophical forays, even when critical, are dependent on the ethics, language, and thinking of the OT.

Student Number : 7639580 - MA research report - Faculty of Humanities / This research report explores the motif of the water journey as a metaphor for philosophical enquiry in Melville and Conrad by comparing Moby-Dick with Heart of Darkness, and Billy Budd, Sailor with Lord Jim. It takes as its starting-point M.H. Abrams’s essay, “Spiritual Travelers in Western Literature”, and adapts the typology which he introduces by identifying four different kinds of fictional journey, namely, the physical, the experiential, the narrative and the hermeneutic. By concentrating on a broadly-based semiotic approach to interpretation (while also allowing for other critical possibilities), it examines Melville and Conrad’s treatment of certain pivotal issues in metaphysics, epistemology and ethics. It compares the narrative strategies of the two authors and, by offering close readings of the four texts under discussion, it highlights the similarities and differences in the authors’ responses to a universe of teasing complexity, as well as exploring the reader’s engagement with such texts.

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