SIG Website: https://musiccreativityandtranslation.wordpress.com/
SIG Leaders:
Dr Arianna Autieri, Goldsmiths, University of London, UK
Dr Lauri A. Niskanen, University of Turku, Finland
This special interest research group aims to continue the interdisciplinary research efforts and creative collaborations initiated at the conference Music to my Ears: Creative Practices in Music and Translation, funded by MHRA and Goldsmiths, University of London and organised at Goldsmiths, University of London, UK in May 2025. The group, in its leadership, continues a long-lasting research collaboration between Arianna Autieri (Goldsmiths, University of London), UK and Lauri Niskanen (University of Turku, Finland), and draws on their experience of collaborative research on musicalized fiction, translation and James Joyce to foster and sustain new collaborative and interdisciplinary insights in the field. The origin of Autieri’s and Niskanen’s research collaboration is in the shared interest of musical allusion and intermediality in the work of James Joyce, and the creative re-creation of those textual practices through translation in new linguistic, cultural, and literary horizons.
Themes:
The activities of the group start from the following premises. Translation of music has a long history which spans from the translation of opera libretti to translation within popular and audiovisual cultures, via poetry set to music and musicalized fiction. Due to its complex multimodal and interdisciplinary nature, the translation of music has received little attention within the field of translation studies. Recently, however, an interdisciplinary subfield of “Translation and Music” has been emerging (Desblache 2019: 68; Greenall et al. 2021: 21–22; Rędzioch-Korkuz 2024: 66). This fascinating new area has the potential to “enrich our understanding of what translation might entail, how far its boundaries can be extended and how it relates to other forms of expression” (Susam-Saraeva 2008: 191), when translation is increasingly more at risk of being seen as a mere mechanical process in the age of AI.
One of the most important challenges that the new subfield is facing “is the fact that such studies call for a multidisciplinary approach” (Susam-Saraeva 2008: 189): it needs specific multidisciplinary expertise not easily found among translators or musicians. Seeking to shed more light on how this challenge has been creatively addressed by practitioners across various fields, this research group, in line with the conference aims, will continue investigating the many forms that the practice of music translation can take, bringing together musicians and music scholars working creatively with music, words, and translation; creative writers specialising in crafting lyrics or narratives for music, and translating music to narratives; translation scholars and translators working on the practice of translating music inter-linguistically or inter-semiotically. By bringing together diverse insights, this research groups aims to foster new interdisciplinary collaborations and illuminate the creative aspect of music translation.
