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1. Troubadours of Information: Aesthetic Experiments in Sonification and Sound Technology

   When Ezra Pound exchanged his initial affinities for the fin-de-siècle decadence of pre-war London poetics for a growing interest in mediaeval troubadour traditions, he was looking beyond innovations in literary form and technique; there is ample evidence in much of his critical writing even at this early stage in his career that the poet was seeking a more philosophical relationship between representation, social ethos and cultural meaning. In the song and musical customs of the troubadour, as cultivated within the “Romance” languages and traditions of southern Europe, Pound identified a rare instance where an artwork’s material form inspired shared cultural sensibilities that transcended any and all context specific references or allusions. Exemplary of this level of aesthetic idealism in the troubadour romance, for Pound, are the songs of the 13th century Tuscan poet, Guido Cavalcanti (d.1300). Cavalcanti’s remarkably precise dedication to the structure and rhythm of the line, Pound informs us, demonstrates equally the “science of the music of words and the knowledge of their magical powers” (1912).

   Jeff T. Johnson - 27.06.2014 - 21:22