ArteActa 2019, 3:7-40

Creātiō ex nihilō. An Analysis of the Narrative Functions of Voice in the Television Oratorio Genesis

Martin Ledvinka

The core of the article is a deconstructive analysis of the television oratorio Genesis (directed by Pavel Hobl, with music by Zbigniew Wiszniewski) which was a co-production of Czechoslovak Television and the German Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen in 1969. Employing the concepts of the voice-object and acousmêtre, the article presents the sound-component of the audio-visual object as an important narrative device. In the first part, the analysis focuses on the opening sequence of the television film, and, using it as a basis, describes the close interconnection of the audio and visual components. The article goes on to concentrate on moments when the established onomatopoeic character of the musical accompaniment becomes disjointed or compromised. The second part of the text is dedicated to the phenomenon of voice as depicted in Genesis, while the third chapter then takes up the representation of death and its significance in connection to the fictive world of the television film. The article presents the television oratorio Genesis as an audio-visual meditation on human mortality and the illusive power of the word; it brings forth an interpretation of the narrative of the oratorio grounded in the above-mentioned theoretical concepts, and offers a reading of the oratorio as a critique of the logo-centrism and rationality of modern society.

Keywords: audiovisual analysis, deconstruction, voice, voice-object, multimedium, television opera

Published: December 15, 2019  Show citation

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Ledvinka, M. (2019). Creātiō ex nihilō. An Analysis of the Narrative Functions of Voice in the Television Oratorio Genesis. ArteActa, 2(3), 7-40
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