At the Crossroads of Science and Literature: Benjamin Britten & "The Sick Rose"

17 January 2012

Benjamin Britten & "The Sick Rose"

Hi everyone!

I thought I'd post this video of composer Benjamin Britten's musical rendition of the "The Sick Rose." It's part of his Songs and Proverbs of William Blake song cycle, and it's pretty haunting! It also shows us how scientific ideas move into the realm of aural aesthetics and not just visual art or literary studies. I wonder what elements of our discussion are evident in Britten's song.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lyQ-eP4PlGU&noredirect=1

-Allison E.

1 comment:

jas17 January, 2012 22:58
Thanx for sharing this Allison! And to add to this, here's that band I mentioned in class today and their rendition of the same: COIL, "Love's Secret Domain"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ZhpIDs_VQ4

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about

Spring 2012

This interdisciplinary course studies the lesser known natural historical records of European scientists alongside the more familiar literary works of Romantic Era poets and prose writers. We investigate the way all of these texts employ the non-human as that which restricts the human to, just as it emancipates the human from, the animal that it is (pointing toward Derrida). We consider the principles of taxonomy and natural aesthetics, the generation debates, and theories of evolution, in order to understand 18th- and 19th-century efforts at (re)presenting the natural world.

This blog serves a twofold purpose: as a collection of our critical responses to the works covered in this course and as an assemblage of our responses to each others' critiques.