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The study analyses the orchestral piece Picassiáda (1958) by Ostrava-based composer Karel Kupka (1927–1985), focussing on the part Smrt Orfeova (in English: The Death of Orpheus). Kupka uses the method of editing assembly, causing a specific excited expression. An important moment of the piece is the inspiration by Pablo Picasso’s illustrations accompanying the edition of Ovid’s Metamorphoses. The analysis looks for elements of musical narrative, which create a unique narrative programme by means of references to the artistic and mythological component. Pieces inspired by ancient themes represent an important part of Kupka’s work. Picassiáda is his most famous piece. The editing assembly method is used throughout Picassiáda; it has a form-creating function within the layout of the piece’s various forms. The inspiration by Picasso’s illustrations is rather free, reflecting the world of ancient culture and mythology with a symbolic background in a modern way. The parallel of both artists’ musical and artistic expression demonstrates itself in Kupka’s work in the form of contrasting cuts of musical surfaces, and in Picasso’s work by the contrast of his monumental and lyrical paintings. Both Kupka’s and Picasso’s work captures the dramatic and ambiguous death of the mythical Orpheus. The narrative analysis of the piece is carried out with a modified methodology of narrative analysis according to Eero Tarasti, who perceives musical narrative as a specific succession of musical events and the creation of tension among binary musical elements. The organising narrative principle of music is isotopy. The articulation of the musical narrative of Picassiáda takes part at three levels of spatiality, temporality and actoriality. The music is modalised through the relationship of the musical structure to myth and artistic inspiration. The narrative analysis of Picassiáda points to a specific, meaningforming alternation of contrasting isotopies, following the narrative structure of the Orpheus myth. The method of editing assembly is the narrative element in music. Modalisation of music through a myth is a supporting method of its interpretation; it points to the deep meaning-related interconnection of the musical and mythological components of the analysed work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study deals with the relationship between myth and music of the 20th century. Myth is a structuring principle affecting music by remythologisation. The author analyses time models in mythological thinking in confrontation with new models of time in music. Myth and music contain a vertical and non-linear dimension with specific manifestation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The term neo-mythologism can be used as an interpretative approach to reflect the new 20th-century music paradigm, which helps to explain changes in the understanding of basic structural elements of myth and music. The study identifies certain possible correlations between mythological thinking and music by analysing the concept of collage (bricolage). The underlying theoretical concept employed is Claude Lévi-Strauss' structural anthropology as proposed in La Pensée Sauvage (1962). Collage is viewed as a manifestation of neo-mythologism and as a narrative in the postmodern musical discourse, which is accompanied by changes in the understanding of the essence of the musical matter and compositional techniques of composers. The compositional treatment of several different layers of the musical structure within a musical collage with a view to conveying a new meaning is in principle akin to how meaning is generated in mythological thinking through the combination of various materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The study aims to present a basic principles and main conceptions of an influence theory about temporal dimenzion in the art and music -- musical narratology, which is often theoretical reflected from the 80's. The stress is put on the methodological problems like a relations between general (literary) narratology and musical narratology, time dimension in music and verbal narrative, narrative possibilities of music atc. Selected narrative themes (as well as authors) are analyzed, compared and critically reflected. Study tries to show, that the specific narrative can be realized in music as a shared mental and art characteristic. Musical narrativity is understood not just a quality of music, but also as a possible analytical method and interpretative approach to the musical work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]