The seventh volume of Music & Literature opens with a celebration of the prolific Welsh novelist, music critic, and librettist Paul Griffiths. Two exclusive interviews and generous selections of his musical and creative writings offer insight into Griffiths’ extensive career and his many sources of inspiration, from Shakespeare to Japanese Noh theatre. Recent collaborations, including the song cycle let me tell you, based on Griffiths’ Oulipian novel containing only the words spoken by Ophelia in Hamlet, and Gulliver, based on Jonathan Swift’s classic satire, receive particular attention, with contributions from partners Barbara Hannigan and James Wood, among others, testifying to Griffiths’ status as one of the Anglophone world’s premiere—and under-acknowledged—talents.

Meanwhile, Ann Quin published just four novels before her death at the age of thirty-seven, but in the decades since has come to be recognized as one of the most original voices of her no-longer-modern, not-quite-postmodern generation. Collected here, alongside a pair of Quin’s provocative and darkly humorous short stories, are new critical appreciations of her life’s work by leading contemporary writers, who pay tribute to Quin’s enduring legacy and influence.

Finally, the compositions and performances of Russian-born artist Lera Auerbach have filled the most prestigious halls and stages around the world, while her visual art has been exhibited in some of its most renowned spaces. From the opening act of her play Gogol, which was staged by the legendary John Neumeier, to appreciations of her poetry, this portfolio surveys the work of a genuine Renaissance woman.

CONTENTS

I. PAUL GRIFFITHS

“Each a Hand’s Breath from the Next” / Oli Hazzard

Singing in the Chains: A Tongue-Tied Heroine / Boyd Tonkin

A Conversation with Paul Griffiths / Scott Esposito

A Chorus of Me: Orphelias in let me tell you / Elodie Olson-Coons

let me tell you: The Beginning / Wiebke Busch, Anne West Griffiths, and Barbara Hannigan

let me tell you: The Song Texts / Paul Griffiths

Three Texts from Hamlet Stories / Paul Griffiths

I went to the house but did not enter / Paul Griffiths

From Fugue on Bach: 1750–July 28th—Wilhelm Friedemann / Paul Griffiths

Stabat Mater / Paul Griffiths

Les Autres / Paul Griffiths

Les Autres / Paul Griffiths, trans. Daniel Levin Becker

Three Texts from Moon Pavilion / Paul Griffiths

in memoriam György Ligeti / Paul Griffiths

“a bizarre kind of solace”: On Iannis Xenakis / Paul Griffiths

Writing towards Music: A Conversation with Paul Griffiths / Matthew Mendez

On Bach’s Six Solo Pieces for Violin / Paul Griffiths

Hearing György Kurtág Reading Samuel Beckett / Paul Griffiths

The Disgraced World / Paul Griffiths

Gulliver: The Origins of a Collaboration / James Wood

The Making of Gulliver / James Wood and Paul Griffiths

From Gulliver: Laputa: Scene 6 / Paul Griffiths

From Gulliver: Lilliput: Scenes 1–2 / Paul Griffiths

II. ANN QUIN

Ann Quin and Me / Deborah Levy

Every Cripple Has His Own Way of Walking / Ann Quin

Eyes that Watch behind the Wind / Ann Quin

Beyond Berg: On Ann Quin’s Short Fiction / Jennifer Hodgson

The Ventriloquist / Kate Zambreno

Unpacking Ann Quin’s Comic Tragedy / Danielle Dutton

Fundamental Uncertainties: On Three / Juliet Jacques

Passages / Jesse Kohn

“Much More Purposeful Than Anything I Could Write” / John Hall

Q & A / Joanna Walsh

Limbo / Ian Patterson

III. LERA AUERBACH

The Ages, Coming to Bear / Michael Kazinik, trans. Ian Dreiblatt

An Appreciation / Vadim Gluzman

“Each Generation Must Confront These Questions”: A Conversation with Lera Auerbach / Doris Weberberger, trans. Isabel Fargo Cole

A Foreigner / Gidon Kremer, trans. Damion Searls

Tatiana Dreams / Ekaterina Belâeva, trans. Ian Dreiblatt

A Portfolio of Photographs from the Stage Productions

Gogol: Act I / Lera Auerbach, trans. Antonina W. Bouis

“Something Essential, When One Is Looking Back” / Hilary Hahn

Both Domestic and Exotic: On Lera Auerbach’s Visual Art / Greta Berman

A Gentle Refutation / Sergei Yursky, trans. Shushan Avagyan