ABSTRACT
Elliott Carter’s First String Quartet (1950–51) marks a turning point in his musical expression. He wrote it at a time when he became increasingly interested in the concept of temporality, leading him to conclude that the most compelling aspect of music is time. Seeking new ways to address the human experience of time and the role memory plays in music, Carter turned to the modernist literature, particularly the works Marcel Proust. Through my analysis of the original documents (housed at the Paul Sacher Stiftung and the Library of Congress), I discovered unpublished text documents pertaining to the First Quartet, in which Carter discusses the concept of “Proustian time,” by examining the theories of time, memory, and “concrete durations” by Henri Bergson, Michel Butor, and Georges Poulet. These documents allowed me to decipher how Carter translated Proustian literary techniques of multiple temporalities into a musical expression. Drawing on philosophy, literary criticism, critical theory, and sketch study, Chapter 1 examines Carter’s First Quartet from the perspective of Proustian time: the role memory plays in relating all events in time and space and the superimposition of multiple temporal strands created by a textural conflict of many layers with contrasting speeds and characters.
