ABSTRACT
The 1887 edition of Mallarmé's Poésies has, as its frontispiece, an etching by Félicien Rops, showing a lyre being unbent; its strings, released from the restraint that would have defined their intonation, stretch obliquely up and off the page. The contrast between post-Romantic aesthetics and the aesthetics of the past is reflected, in 'Don du poème', by an opposition between the poet and his companion. They may be held to incarnate male and female principles in Mallarmé's gendered view. Helmholtz's Principle denies to the analysis of any given piece of music the possibility of encapsulating the essence of what music in general is, since all analysable features of music are determined only within an aesthetic context that changes with time. Analysis, says Helmholtz, can have a purchase on music considered within the school or style to which it belongs: Mallarmé removes contemporary music from any such style, and therefore places it beyond the reach of analysis.
