ABSTRACT
Music and the various texts that relate to it can require translation in the most commonly accepted sense of the word. In spite of their partial untranslatability, translation of musical texts can make those texts meaningful musically, linguistically, culturally, modally, sensorially. Since the beginning of the 20th century, music has become both an instrument of diversity – playing a key role in the expression of collective and individual ethnic, political and artistic identities – and instrument of hegemony. An ambivalent example of this is the 'gentrification' of rock: while Black musicians were the creators of the rock 'n' roll style after the World War, their work was marginalised while being translated into White mainstream products by artists such as Elvis Presley. Scholars only started to provide comprehensive models of music translation in the 21st century. Some areas, such as opera and song translation or the transnational circulation of vocal music have been explored extensively, while others are still neglected.
