Beethoven’s vocal works are often neglected or overshadowed as a result of his prominent involvement with large-scale instrumental genres such as sonata, symphony, or string quartet. Nevertheless, he sustained throughout his life a significant interest in literature and poetry; his personal library, as well as his letters, Tagebuch, and conversation books all document this by way of numerous direct quotations from—and indirect references to—the literary materials that interested him. The numerous vocal works he produced between 1783 and 1826 are one relevant manifestation of this interest and engagement with words. Beethoven produced a significant body of vocal works, the majority of which have not received the same intensity of analytical treatment as the instrumental works. Specifically, this study examines the relationship between words and music in the solo songs and other vocal works of Beethoven. The points of intersection between literary and musical expression are evaluated within four aspects of text setting: structure, rhythm, meaning, and narrative. Firstly, elements of derivation and deviation are explored to determine the diverse ways that he deliberately constructed musical structures in response to the poetic (and semantic) structures of each source text. Secondly, and by extension, rhythm and metre—and varying degrees of derivation, deviation, and manipulation—are assessed so as to demonstrate how these works illustrate Beethoven’s awareness of the expressive possibilities for adhering to or altering the relationship between poetic and musical metre. Thirdly, various types of musical rhetoric—including Beethoven’s implementation of the conventions for affective tonality, as well as the reliance on both conventional and uniquely-Beethovenian depictive idioms and gestures—illustrate his response to various levels of semantic content. Fourthly, his response to individual (though interrelated) aspects of narrative in his selected texts are evaluated. Drawing concepts from key figures of narrative theory—including Gérard Genette, Roland Barthes, Mieke Bal, and others—this study assesses the narrative content in selected texts as a means by which to gauge Beethoven’s compositional response to aspects of temporality, focalisation, spatiality, and so forth, both individually and in combination. Ultimately, this study demonstrates that—contrary to frequently voiced opinions—Beethoven responded quite closely and deliberately to the expressive implications of his selected texts, while aspects of poetic and musical structure, rhythm, syntax, imagery, and layers of meaning coalesce within complex narrative processes. Beethoven was aware of the inherent musicality of poetic texts and the significance of forging a close compositional relationship between words and music; thus he consistently demonstrated in composing these works his ideology that within vocal works ‘words and music form a unit’.

No ponto de intersecção entre música e literatura na construção da unidade de uma obra musical que faz uso de texto canção, música coral etc. reside um artesanato cuja abordagem do processo criativo é tão antigo quanto a própria expressão verbal da qual podese hipoteticamente afirmar como originária da música quanto arte: observa-se a forte presença da voz na música antiga (ars antiqua, ars nova). Tal aproximação racional com os formantes sígnicos do texto semantizado pela música levou a um senso comum entre os compositores na teoria (ou doutrina) dos afetos em voga desde o período barroco e nos posteriores. A música de Gilberto Mendes em seu itinerário pode nos mostrar como as ferramentas da composição musical podem ir além das configurações elementares da música (melodia, harmonia, ritmo, timbre, dinâmica) como forma de semantizar o texto. Compositor em estreito relacionamento com a literatura, cinema, com a arte de um modo geral, Gilberto Mendes nos oferece uma ampla gama de exemplos que extrapola a uma criação restrita e se abre a uma pluralidade cultural, servindo assim, como reflexo criativo da arte do século XX XXI. Através da análise do texto literário e da análise musical, tanto no seu âmbito formal quanto estética, foi possível detectar os elementos que conjugam a unidade da obra. / At the intersection point between music and literature in creation of the unity of a musical work with text song, choral etc. resides a craft whose approach to a creative process as old as original verbal expression of music as art: there is a strong presence of the voice in early music (ars antiqua, ars nova). Such a rational approach to the formants signic text signified for music led to a common sense among composers in theory of the affects in vogue since the Baroque period and in subsequent. The music of Gilberto Mendes on your itinerary can show us how the tools of musical composition can go beyond the basic settings of music (melody, harmony, rhythm, tone-color, dynamic) as a way to create a semantic field of the text. A close composer to literature, cinema, to the art generally, Gilberto Mendes offers us a wide range of examples which extrapolates to a restricted setting and opens to the cultural plurality, thus serving as a reflection of the creative art of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Through the literary and musical analysis, both in the formal and aesthetic scope, it was possible to detect elements that conjugate the works unity.

No ponto de intersecção entre música e literatura na construção da unidade de uma obra musical que faz uso de texto canção, música coral etc. reside um artesanato cuja abordagem do processo criativo é tão antigo quanto a própria expressão verbal da qual podese hipoteticamente afirmar como originária da música quanto arte: observa-se a forte presença da voz na música antiga (ars antiqua, ars nova). Tal aproximação racional com os formantes sígnicos do texto semantizado pela música levou a um senso comum entre os compositores na teoria (ou doutrina) dos afetos em voga desde o período barroco e nos posteriores. A música de Gilberto Mendes em seu itinerário pode nos mostrar como as ferramentas da composição musical podem ir além das configurações elementares da música (melodia, harmonia, ritmo, timbre, dinâmica) como forma de semantizar o texto. Compositor em estreito relacionamento com a literatura, cinema, com a arte de um modo geral, Gilberto Mendes nos oferece uma ampla gama de exemplos que extrapola a uma criação restrita e se abre a uma pluralidade cultural, servindo assim, como reflexo criativo da arte do século XX XXI. Através da análise do texto literário e da análise musical, tanto no seu âmbito formal quanto estética, foi possível detectar os elementos que conjugam a unidade da obra. / At the intersection point between music and literature in creation of the unity of a musical work with text song, choral etc. resides a craft whose approach to a creative process as old as original verbal expression of music as art: there is a strong presence of the voice in early music (ars antiqua, ars nova). Such a rational approach to the formants signic text signified for music led to a common sense among composers in theory of the affects in vogue since the Baroque period and in subsequent. The music of Gilberto Mendes on your itinerary can show us how the tools of musical composition can go beyond the basic settings of music (melody, harmony, rhythm, tone-color, dynamic) as a way to create a semantic field of the text. A close composer to literature, cinema, to the art generally, Gilberto Mendes offers us a wide range of examples which extrapolates to a restricted setting and opens to the cultural plurality, thus serving as a reflection of the creative art of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Through the literary and musical analysis, both in the formal and aesthetic scope, it was possible to detect elements that conjugate the works unity.