Representations of cahos in the 18th century music

• Grant number: 16/12137-9
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: September 01, 2016
• End date: February 28, 2018
• Field of knowledge: Linguistics, Literature and Arts - Arts - Music
• Principal Investigator: Monica Isabel Lucas
• Grantee: Felipe Galhardi Rodrigues
• Host Institution: Escola de Comunicações e Artes (ECA). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Cahos has been a constant debate theme since Ancient times, although few studies approach the representations of Cahos in music. Neither musical works that imitate Cahos have come broadly in musical literature. However, the 18th century witnesses, at least, three main works which come to this issue: the ouverture Les Elemens (1737), of Jean-Féry Rebel, the ouverture of opera Zais (1748), of Jean-Phillip Rameau and the prelude of The Creation (1798), of Franz Joseph Haydn. In comparing those works, it is clear that, despite of stylistic differences, they reveal several common elements, both regarding the use of Classical scope - which fits as a starting point to all of those works - and the techniques spent to express Cahos. Aiming to accomplish the general proposal of comparing different representations of Cahos, this work intends, firstly, to recover the greek notion of Cahos, relating it to the references of the Classical Ancient Era as well as the literary works that served as ground to those compositions. Then, the three pieces will be contextualized regarding aspects of 17th century tastes and styles. The musical genres used to representate Cahos will also be described to, finally, point the way of subverting both order and prescriptions of genre in the foundation of musical representations of Cahos, highlighting the similitudes and the variations of procedure in the chosen works.