At skrive som Anton Webern. Intermedial genrehistorie i Tor Ulvens Webernvariationer

Anemari Neple: “The Art of Silence and the Silence of the Arts. Tor Ulven’s Webern Variations”In 1987, the Norwegian poet Tor Ulven (1953-1995) published a cycle of poems entitled “The Music Can Wait. Nineteen Webern Variations”, thus making a somewhat puzzling claim to the reader that the poems ought to be read as little pieces of instrumental music related to the Austrian composer Anton Webern (1883-1945). In this article, it is argued that this claim should be considered as something more than just a paradox. In combining characteristic features of Webern’s music with equally characteristic features of his own poetry, Ulven does indeed fulfill his outspoken ambition of writing like Webern by creating a visual experience of silence with intermedial dimensions that challenges our understanding of the borders between music and poetry.