Cuando los muertos narran y cantan: La puesta en música de la Antología de Spoon River de Edgar Lee Masters (1915) por Fabrizio De André (1971)

Abstract

The publication of the ‘Spoon River’ anthology in 1915 supposed Edgar Lee Masters’ entry to the « Chicago Renaissance » literary movement. Both readers and critique received it with pleasure, so the first edition was reprinted seventy times by 1940 and, despite the fact that Victorian voices reprimanded the use of free verse, Masters was acclaimed as the « father of contemporary literature » (Pavese, 1962, 52). Since the book publication, Spoon River’s cemetery –of which dead men and epitaphs tell the intrahistory of the jobs and professions practised during their daily life– has called the attention of musicians of the second half of the 20th century. Among them, Fabrizio De André stands out with his Non al denaro non all’amore né al cielo (1971), a free adaptation for guitar and voice. Through the musical and literary analysis of these works, this paper aims to [1] understand the compositional procedures used to set to music the aforesaid text/ Masters’ text and to [2] understand which are the poetical and literary aspects emphasized by each of the musical styles applied by Fabrizio d’André. The conclusions obtained throw light on music/text concordances and discrepancies in the pieces of art that constitute the object of study.