Musical creativity in the line of fire.

IF 1.2 2区心理学 Q1 PSYCHOLOGY, PSYCHOANALYSIS

International Journal of Psychoanalysis Pub Date : 2025-05-16 DOI:10.1080/00207578.2025.2466467

Francis Grier

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Abstract

Music and war is a vast topic. This essay limits itself mainly to compositions of Western classical music written in response to World War II. I examine A Ceremony of Carols (1942), by UK pacifist, Benjamin Britten, composed on a ship menaced by U-boats as he returned from voluntary exile to face the war; and the Quartet for the End of Time (1941), by the Frenchman, Olivier Messiaen, interned in a German prisoner-of-war camp, where 400 prisoners and German officers attended its premiere in freezing conditions. I refer also to Bion's wartime experiences. War is studied as a magnification of hatred and rivalry within families, focusing on the biblical lament of David for the killing of his son Absalom, set to music down the centuries. Finally, Britten's War Requiem is explored, as a modern testament to the horrors of war, avoiding pomp and emphasising ambivalence and ambiguity. I consider these pieces from the perspective of Bion's theories of L, H, K, and O, and suggest they bear out Winnicott's theory of transitional space and Segal's theory of artistic creativity with its depiction of a ruined world, which music may attempt to repair, particularly through the operation of musically aesthetic containment.

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火线上的音乐创造力。

音乐与战争是一个广泛的话题。这篇文章主要局限于为回应第二次世界大战而创作的西方古典音乐作品。我研究了英国和平主义者本杰明·布里顿（Benjamin Britten） 1942年创作的《颂歌仪式》（A Ceremony of carolols），这首歌是他在自愿流亡回国面对战争时，在一艘受到u型潜艇威胁的船上创作的；法国人奥利维尔·梅西安（Olivier Messiaen）的《时间尽头四重奏》（Quartet for the End of Time, 1941）被关押在德国战俘营，400名囚犯和德国军官在寒冷的天气里观看了首演。我还提到了比昂的战时经历。战争被研究为家庭内部仇恨和竞争的放大，重点放在大卫为杀死他的儿子押沙龙而唱的《圣经》哀歌上，几个世纪以来，这首歌被谱成音乐。最后，我们探讨了布里顿的《战争安魂曲》，作为对战争恐怖的现代证明，它避免了浮夸，强调了矛盾和模棱两可。我从Bion的L、H、K和O理论的角度来考虑这些作品，并认为它们证实了Winnicott的过渡空间理论和Segal的艺术创造力理论，它描述了一个被破坏的世界，音乐可能试图修复，特别是通过音乐美学遏制的操作。

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来源期刊

International Journal of Psychoanalysis PSYCHOLOGY, PSYCHOANALYSIS-

CiteScore

1.30

自引率

16.70%

发文量

期刊介绍： It is the only psychoanalytic journal regularly publishing extensive contributions by authors throughout the world - facilitated by a system of international editorial boards and the policy of allowing submission and review in all main European languages, followed by translation of accepted papers at the Journal"s expense. We publish contributions on Methodology, Psychoanalytic Theory & Technique, The History of Psychoanalysis, Clinical Contributions, Research and Life-Cycle Development, Education & Professional Issues, Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy, and Interdisciplinary Studies. The Journal also publishes the main papers and panel reports from the International Psychoanalytical Association"s Congresses, book reviews, obituaries, and correspondence.