A Musicological Interpretation Of To The Lighthouse

Modern novelists, especially the stream-of-consciousness novelists, have made great effort in exploring new forms and techniques in novel creating. Other art forms, including music, have become meaningful references for novel composition. Virginia Woolf is very much versed in and has acquired a unique understanding of music. Therefore, she is quite capable of building up poetic aesthetic themes and creating powerful artistic atmospheres by adopting various musicological techniques. To the Lighthouse is a highly musicalized novel. Yet previous studies on the novel have focused on her feminist thought, poetic style, and stream-of-consciousness techniques. Though there are critics who have attempted to review the novel from musical perspectives, they have failed to deal with its musicological features systematically. This thesis aims to offer a somewhat detailed study on the novel in terms of its three musicological aspects.Chapter 1 discusses the transplant of music form in representing the theme of the novel To the Lighthouse. Theme is the soul of a novel. Woolf makes the most of the advantages of sonata form in constructing the whole work, representing the poetic theme of the novel effectively. The three parts of the novel, the Window, Time Passes, the Lighthouse, correspond respectively with the exposition, development, and recapitulation in sonata form, which implement the artistic functions of exposing, pushing forward and enlightening the theme.Chapter 2 discusses the referential uses of the music texture of polyphony and one of the most important devices of polyphonic techniques—counterpoint in organizing the narration of scattered streams of consciousnesses. Musical texture focuses on the layers in lateral construction and the inner relationship of them. There are three main kinds of texture: monophony, polyphony and homophony. In the construction of narration, Woolf makes full use of the synchronic characteristics of polyphony, bringing a symphonic sound effect of multiple voice parts to the novel; meanwhile, she uses the important polyphonic technique—counterpoint, through which, various consciousnesses and the interaction between them have been fully represented and strengthened.Chapter 3 discusses the imitation of music rhythm. The most important elements of rhythm are meter and tempo. Meter is determined by the number of beats and the time value assigned to each note in a measure and the function of it is to bring out some bright rhythmic patterns by the variation and repetition of beats and time value. Tempo is the speed or pace of the rhythmic patterns and the function of it is to push the patterns forward. Generally speaking, there are three main rhythmic patterns: slow, moderate and fast. Different rhythmic patterns can bring different emotional experiences to audiences. Woolf uses musical rhythmic patterns in forming the meter of language and the tempo of narrative movement. On one hand, the repetition plus variation in wording and phrasing brings musical rhythm to the narrative language; and on the other hand, the relationship between the duration of the story time and the length of the text produces alternated feelings of speediness and slowness, bringing to the novel a fluid musical feeling, and arousing resonances in readers' minds.In conclusion, it is because of Woolf's creative and effective uses of the music techniques that To the Lighthouse has acquired the beauty beyond texts and become a rare musicalized modern fiction in the history of English modern literature.