"Words and Music" Becketta/Feldmana

The article analyses the radio play by Samuel Beckett with musical arrangement provided by Morton Feldman, focussing on a particular relationship developing between the characters described in stage directions as Words and Music. The part of Words develops over the course of the play, which stands in opposition to the process which, according to Giambattista Vico, occurs in the historic development of language. However, the pre-linguist stage remains unattained. Feldman’s music proves capable of reaching this phase as it is preserved by the author in a condition which has been linked, in Julia Kristeva’s theory, with semiotic modality.