Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

“No tation”: The Scored Allegorical in BpNichol’s The Martyrology

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Notational Experiments in North American Long Poems, 1961-2011

Part of the book series: Modern and Contemporary Poetry and Poetics ((MPCC))

  • 157 Accesses

Abstract

This chapter examines the contrastive instances of notational poetics in BpNichol’s The Martyrology. Never having received critical attention together, the notation in Books 5 and 6 work down to the smallest scales of sonic engineering. Yet like “A”-24 of the Zukofskys, BpNichol also experiments with allegorical music, choosing to end the entire work with notation. Book 9, “Ad Sanctos,” is a final, collaborative score, a musical drama written with the composer Howard Gerhard. Hence notational work in The Martyrology moves from the tiniest sonic layers and audial contours toward a full-blown choral poetics. The argument is that The Martyrology as a whole cannot be understood without consideration of this final, choral book.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
eBook
USD 16.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 99.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 99.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Works Cited

  • Badiou, Alain. Five Lessons on Wagner. London: Verso, 2010. Print.

    Google Scholar 

  • Barreto-Rivera, Rafael, Paul Dutton, Steve McCaffery and BpNichol. The Prose Tattoo: Selected Performance Scores. Milwaukee: Membrane Press, 1984. Print.

    Google Scholar 

  • Billingham, Susan E. Language and the Sacred in Canadian Poet BpNichol’s The Martyrology. Lewiston: Edwin Mellen Press, 2000. Print.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bök Christian. Pataphysics: The Poetics of an Imaginary Science. Evanston: Northwestern UP, 2001. Print.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bök Christian. The Xenotext: Book 1. Toronto: Coach House, 2015. Print.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brown, Joseph Alexander, Terry Trowbridge and József Szabó. “The Poetic Metrics of bpNichol.” In Science and Technology for Humanity (TIC-STH). Proceedings of the IEEE Toronto International Conference (2009): 933–938. Print.

    Google Scholar 

  • Buchanan, Ian. Ed. Jameson on Jameson: Conversations on Cultural Marxism. Durham: Duke UP, 2007. Print.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bucknell, Brad. Literary Modernism and Musical Aesthetics: Pater, Pound, Joyce and Stein. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2001. Print.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cain, Stephen. “Hopelessly Devoted: The Sacred and the Sloppy in bpNichol Criticism.” Open Letter 13.8 (Spring 2009): 29–25. Print.

    Google Scholar 

  • Davey, Frank. Aka BpNichol: A Preliminary Biography. Toronto: ECW Press, 2012. Print.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dutton, Paul. “bpNichol and the Past-Present of a Future Music.” Musicworks 44 (Autumn 1989): 4–16. Print.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dutton, Paul. “bp Anecdotingly.” Open Letter 13.8 (2009): 77–91. Print.

    Google Scholar 

  • Harvey, Roderick W. “bpNichol: The Repositioning of Language.” Essays on Canadian Writing 4 (Spring 1976): 27–38. Print.

    Google Scholar 

  • Heninger Jr., S.K. Touches of Sweet Harmony: Pythagorean Cosmology and Renaissance Poetics. San Marino: Huntington Library, 1974. Print.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hugill, Andrew. Pataphysics: A Useless Guide. Cambridge, MA.: MIT Press, 2012. Print.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jakobson, Roman. Linguistics and Poetics. Cambridge, MA: Belknap, 1987. Print.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jameson, Fredric. Jameson on Jameson: Conversations on Cultural Marxism. Ed. Ian Buchanan. Durham: Duke UP, 2007. Print.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kinderman, William. Beethoven. Second Edition. New York: Oxford UP, 2009. Print.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kotz, Liz. Words to Be Looked At: Language in 1960s Art. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2010. Print.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lévi-Strauss, Claude. “The Structural Study of Myth.” The Journal of American Folklore 68.270 (1955): 428–444. Print.

    Google Scholar 

  • McCaffery, Steve. North of Intention: Critical Writings 1973–1986. New York: Roof Books, 2000. Print.

    Google Scholar 

  • McCrombie, Elizabeth. Mallarmé and Debussy: Unheard Music, Unseen Text. New York: Oxford UP, 2003. Print.

    Google Scholar 

  • McHale, Brian. The Obligation Toward the Difficult Whole: Postmodern Long Poems. Tuscaloosa: U of Alabama P, 2004. Print.

    Google Scholar 

  • Miki, Roy. Ed. Tracing the Paths: Reading ≠ Writing The Martyrology. Talon Books: Vancouver, 1988. Print.

    Google Scholar 

  • Miki, Roy. Ed. Meanwhile: the Critical Writings of bpNichol. Vancouver: Talonbooks, 2002. Print.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ngai, Sianne. Ugly Feelings. Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP, 2005. Print.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nichol, Bp. The Martyrology, Book 5. Toronto: Coach House Press, 1982. Print.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nichol, Bp. “The ’Pata of Letter Feet, or, The English Written Character as a Medium for Poetry.” Open Letter 6.1 (Spring 1985): 79–95. Print.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nichol, Bp. Zygal: A Book of Mysteries and Translations. Toronto: Coach House Press, 1985. Print.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nichol, Bp. The Martyrology, Book 6 Books: 1978–1985. Toronto: Coach House Press, 1987. Print.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nichol, Bp. Gifts: The Martyrology Book(s) 7&. Toronto: Coach House Press, 1990. Print.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nichol, Bp. Meanwhile: The Critical Writings of bpNichol. Ed. Roy Miki. Vancouver: Talonbooks, 2002. Print.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nichol, Bp and Howard Gerhard. Ad Sanctos: The Martyrology Book 9: 1986–1987. Toronto: Coach House Press, 1993. Print.

    Google Scholar 

  • Notley, Alice. “The Martyrology, Book V.” Open Letter 14.1 (Fall 2009): 89–94. Print.

    Google Scholar 

  • Scobie, Stephen. bpNichol: What History Teaches. Vancouver: Talonbooks, 1984. Print.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schoenberg, Arnold. Style and Idea. New York: Philosophical Library, 1950. Print.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wilcken, Patrick. Claude Lévi-Strauss: The Poet in the Laboratory. London: Bloomsbury, 2010. Print.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of English, The University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia

    A. J. Carruthers

Authors
  1. A. J. Carruthers
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2017 The Author(s)

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Carruthers, A.J. (2017). “No tation”: The Scored Allegorical in BpNichol’s The Martyrology . In: Notational Experiments in North American Long Poems, 1961-2011 . Modern and Contemporary Poetry and Poetics. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-46242-4_3

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation