Musico-literary encounters

Romain Rolland’s roman-fleuve , Jean-Christophe (1904–1912), was described by its English translator, Gilbert Cannan, as ‘the first novel of the twentieth century’. Jean-Christophe can indeed be seen as a foundational modern novel, given its lengthy introspective narrative style, its exploration of the genesis of artistic creation, and the impressive depiction of a fictional composer and imaginary music, foreshadowing Proust’s Vinteuil in À la recherche du temps perdu and Adrian Leverkühn in Thomas Mann’s Doktor Faustus . This article considers the profound, though often nebulous, encounter between music and literature in Jean-Christophe . However, rather than focus on musical aspects of the novel which have received some critical attention already, such as the parallels between Jean-Christophe and Beethoven, or aspects of Wagnerian music drama, this article elucidates a neglected musico-literary encounter in Jean-Christophe . It explores the role and representation of Jean-Christophe’s Lieder in relation to the Franco-German cultural context from which they emerged.