Composition as a Translational Process

As a composer, I have always been interested in the practice of borrowing, re-composing, and the re-contextualisation of parameters or fragments from existing works, and how these can be transformed within their new setting to form innovative, creative works. This sparked an interest in examining how these works relate to their original as a linguistic translation connects to its original source. I was interested in applying linguistic and semiotic frameworks discovered in translation studies literature to the act of composition. My research question is thus ‘how can concepts of translation be applied productively to a compositional environment, and what are the consequences of doing so?’ Throughout this PhD I sought out key concepts within the field of translation, specifically those mapped out within Umberto Eco’s Mouse or Rat?: Translation as Negotiation, such as translatability, carrying across and betrayal, foreignisation, domestication, and faithfulness. I utilise these notions as tools to either translate music from one period or style into another as seen in Brumel Translated (2019), or carry out translations across differing mediums, as seen in Exercices de style (2020–2022), where I translate a set of textual exercises into musical ones along with the general characteristics of the book. Further, I use these tools to timbrally and technically translate material composed for one instrument into that for another, as seen in Sound Translations (2019), Remnant Echoes (2020), and Attack Resonance Decay (2019–2021).

Through such pieces I explore several forms of translation recognised within linguistics and semiotic translation literature, such as Roman Jacobson’s ‘inter-lingual’, ‘intra-lingual’, and ‘inter-semiotic’ translation. Alongside this I explore Henrik Gottlieb’s ‘intra-semiotic’ translation, not recognised by Jakobson, and other linguistic practitioners, despite both inter- and intra-lingual translation falling into this category. Throughout this PhD I argue that the translational procedures, as seen within the practice of composition, can be documented as valid forms of translation, at least within the semiotic discipline: Gottlieb recognises such musical translation within his chapter ‘Translation and semiotics’ in The Routledge Handbook of Translation Studies and Linguistics. This discussion is delivered through a literature review, where I introduce concepts and practices of key practitioners in linguistic and semiotic translation studies. Next, I contextualise composers who claim to have employed translation within their work, along with a listing of musical processes which I recognise as translational acts, such as re-composition, borrowing, re-contextualisation, mapping and so on. I then analyse the works of this portfolio against translation studies concepts and disciplines within my critical commentaries. In the ultimate section, I discuss the consequences of using such translational techniques, and how this adapted my approach to material and structure, while pointing to key areas for potential further research in the field of music and translation.