Transformations of Literary Ballad: the Aspect of Form Musicality Annotation
Transformations of Literary Ballad: the Aspect of Form Musicality Annotation

Summary/Abstract: : The article analyzes literary ballads in a musical form. For that purpose, two ballads by Lithuanian writers are compared: 19-20th century poet’s Maironis “Jūratė and Kastytis” and the mid-20th century poet’s (neo-romantic-symbolist) Vincas Mykolaitis-Putinas “Mozart”. A comparative methodology, the functional analysis method is applied to the works of Werner Wolf, Steven Paul Scher, Viktor Bobrovsky, Aleksandras Žalys et al.. The conclusion reached in the end is that remnants of folklore ballads are obvious in the ballad “Jūratė and Kastytis” (epic chorus – lyrical solo episodes, system of rhymes), its form being close to that analogous to the sonata with coda, and its dynamic structure to the instrumental ballad. “Mozart” is of a more complex structure, as it reminds of a combination of the sonata form and the sonatic-symphonic cycle with elements of rondo, separate parts of which are typical of complex compositional form. As a summary of the analyzed material, it is stated that transformations of musical form ballad genre express the intensification of a psychological-existential topos dominant in 20th century literature.

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