On Musicality: John Banville’s The Sea and Beethoven’s “Meeresstille und Glückliche Fahrt”
On Musicality: John Banville’s The Sea and Beethoven’s “Meeresstille und Glückliche Fahrt”

Summary/Abstract: In this paper I look into the formal and thematic means whereby both Banville and Beethoven achieve the compelling musicality of their works. I deploy the term “musicality” as a “travelling concept” (Mieke Bal 2002), that is to say, a generic concept that travels across disciplinary boundaries, applying equally to works belonging to several art forms and various ages. While the two texts I focus on share no obvious connection in terms of influence or a common musical sensibility, they do share both thematic and structural elements that can be fruitfully compared in view of an investigation of the applicability of the concept of musicality to literary studies. In Banville’s novel, Cagean appropriations of ordinary sounds, onomatopoeic rhythmic momentum, the contrapuntal patterning and euphonious phrasing of the narrative, all invoke music and signal metatextual self-consciousness of an order that traverses the conventional boundaries separating art forms. The comparison with the Beethoven/ Goethe text thus serves methodological purposes, enhancing the understanding of both Banville’s novel and the travelling concept of musicality.

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