Musical Ecphrasis in three poems by Ángel González

Abstract

Ecphrasis has been identified with works in which the aim is to transpose the plastic arts into verbal discourse. The same figure has been little studied when it comes to the incorporation of musical elements into the literary text. This article focuses on the identification of these elements in the work of Ángel González, since music is a recurring theme in many of his poems. Musical ecphrasis is understood as the use of words proper to this field - names of composers, performers, instruments, musical genres, sounds, among others - at different discursive levels. In Asturian's poetry, the intermediality between musical and literary discourse takes place through descriptive, associative, and attributive ecphrasis, and this implies the reception not only of visual images, but also of auditory images that construct the text.