“Transcreation”: An Analysis of Pierrot Lunaire by Augusto de Campos and the Use of “Melopoetics” as a Translation Tool for Vocal Works

Abstract

This paper is an interdisciplinary study conducted as part of our doctoral research and brings together theories of linguistics and music to define and develop, through a case analysis, the translation of Arnold Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire by Augusto de Campos, where these theories can be used as tools to assist in the translation process of vocal works. We start from the viewpoint of the singer and the principle that text and music are inseparable sound phenomena in song and other vocal genres, relying on the theory of melopoetics as the guiding principal of this creative process. In light of this line of study that deals specifically with the sonorous issues that permeate music and text, the tools we developed are intimately related to these phenomena. Meter, rhythmic accentuation, prosody, internal and external rhymes, the process of joining and separating words in music, and performance issues are elements discussed here, in a study that, in its core, promotes intercommunication between music and linguistics.

Keywords

• Tradução para performance vocal. Augusto de Campos. Pierrot Lunaire. Melopoética.