© The Author (2005). Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.
Britten’s Musical Syllables
In Thomas Mann’s novella Death in Venice, we are told that the protagonist, Aschenbach, first interprets the sounds of Tadzio’s name as two ‘musical syllables’. By setting the syllables and related words in a network of leitmotifs, Britten’s operatic version of Mann’s tale creates a large-scale rhyme scheme that enriches the narrative with a wealth of sonorous signification. Bits of libretto text become linked with Tadzio’s name, and their musical and phonemic development is traced from ‘addio’ to ‘Adgio’ to ‘ah no’ and beyond, illustrating how notions of departure, desire, and dissolution resonate within Tadzio’s acoustical persona. Observations gleaned from studying Britten’s sketches and libretto drafts support this interpretation, as do recent perspectives from phonology and cognitive poetics. The discussion ultimately demonstrates how transformations of the Tadzio syllables enact not only the repressive process that underlies Aschenbach’s artistic struggle, but also the restoration that comes even at the moment of his death.