'A crazy clutter of the mediaeval, medical mind': Ken Russell, Peter Maxwell Davies and Modernist Medievalism in The Devils. Issue 1 (4th May 2022)
- Record Type:
- Journal Article
- Title:
- 'A crazy clutter of the mediaeval, medical mind': Ken Russell, Peter Maxwell Davies and Modernist Medievalism in The Devils. Issue 1 (4th May 2022)
- Main Title:
- 'A crazy clutter of the mediaeval, medical mind': Ken Russell, Peter Maxwell Davies and Modernist Medievalism in The Devils
- Authors:
- KOLASSA, ALEXANDER
- Abstract:
- Abstract: Ken Russell's 1971 film The Devils is a shocking historical drama which, eclipsed by its own battle against censorship, has only recently had a critical revival. A landmark musical collaboration central to that film remains unexplored: Peter Maxwell Davies wrote the score, which is heard in tandem with 'period' performances from David Munrow and the Early Music Consort of London. Though ostensibly historical, the film's disruptive atemporal style is elevated through an art of stylized anachronism. This collaboration mirrors Davies's opera Taverner (premièred in 1972), not only because that too featured Munrow and his consort but also because Russell was supposed to direct its première. This article posits Davies's film score as a compelling work combining historicist compositional interests and a challenging aesthetic of excess within the popular context of mass cinematic spectacle. Informed by the close study of Davies's own manuscripts, it argues for new ways of understanding the role of a persistent past in the music of a resolutely modernist present.
- Is Part Of:
- Journal of the Royal Musical Association. Volume 147:Issue 1(2022)
- Journal:
- Journal of the Royal Musical Association
- Issue:
- Volume 147:Issue 1(2022)
- Issue Display:
- Volume 147, Issue 1 (2022)
- Year:
- 2022
- Volume:
- 147
- Issue:
- 1
- Issue Sort Value:
- 2022-0147-0001-0000
- Page Start:
- 135
- Page End:
- 170
- Publication Date:
- 2022-05-04
- Subjects:
- Music -- History and criticism -- Periodicals
Music -- Periodicals
780.5 - Journal URLs:
- https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-the-royal-musical-association ↗
http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rrma20 ↗
http://www.tandfonline.com/ ↗ - DOI:
- 10.1017/rma.2021.29 ↗
- Languages:
- English
- ISSNs:
- 0269-0403
- Deposit Type:
- Legaldeposit
- View Content:
- Available online (eLD content is only available in our Reading Rooms) ↗
- Physical Locations:
- British Library DSC - 4862.125000
British Library DSC - BLDSS-3PM
British Library HMNTS - ELD Digital store - Ingest File:
- 22064.xml