This article explores how Peter Maxwell Davies uses thematic and structural devices to chart the means by which the title character in Mr Emmet Takes a Walk is led towards suicide. Discussion centres on how Davies integrates use of quotation and trademark musical gestures into the development of characterisation in order to explore different states of 'reality, dream and waking fantasy' by which he seeks to explain the reasons for Emmet's suicide.
For nearly twenty years the Cambridge Opera Journal has been the preeminent forum for scholarship on opera in all its manifestations. The Journal publishes essays not only on all aspects of the European operatic tradition, but also on American opera and musical theatre, on non-Western music theatres, on contemporary opera production, and on the theory and historiography of opera. Carefully researched and often illustrated with music examples and pictures, articles adopt a wide spectrum of critical approaches. As well as major articles, each issue includes reviews of recent important publications in the field. Instructions for Contributors at Cambridge Journals Online
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