Music and Orientalism in the British Empire, 1780s-1940s by Zon Bennett; Clayton Martin; Zon Professor Bennett

Author:Zon, Bennett; Clayton, Martin; Zon, Professor Bennett
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Routledge

So even when a work does not directly represent a sexualized Oriental woman, themes of Eastern sexuality can proliferate. This sensualization of the Oriental woman primarily came about through its portrayal in art, literature and music of the period and, as Locke discusses in his seminal article ‘Constructing the Oriental “Other”: Saint-Saëns’s Samson et Dalila’, 47 images of the Oriental woman on canvas embody what has been called a topos obligé of Western fantasies about the Orient: the female figures are portrayed as objects of desire — primarily as odalisques or concubines who are voluptuous, vulnerable and sexually available to a (present or implied) Oriental male, himself a displacement of the Western male viewer of the painting.

There are no naked bodies on the concert platform in Caractacus. Nor is there much emphasis on the inaccessibility of beautiful women ‘hidden away from the world’, as in the many Orientalist works that focus on the harem.48 However, the signifiers are there when you look closely. Elgar Orientalizes his Druid maidens in a very subtle way and they could easily be overlooked. However, Charles McGuire, in a paper he gave for the Elgar International Conference, entitled, ‘How Does Your Druid Dance? Issues of Race and Religion in Acworth and Elgar’s Caractacus’,49 notes in the first paragraph ‘dishevelled participants, here in the guise of the Druid Maidens, who complete the ritual only by letting their hair down and baring their breasts’.50 This seemed a strange thing to include, even in a pagan rite, because why, in a secular cantata dealing with the fall of the Britons, would Elgar have been bothered about details of his Druid maidens baring their breasts? There is plenty of evidence to suggest that Acworth’s libretto for Caractacus was a good deal longer than the one used for the final cantata, so Elgar did choose not to set large portions of Acworth’s words. Yet, why then did he retain this part?

It is possible that Acworth and Elgar rather liked the image of the Druid maidens baring their breasts at such a pivotal moment in the Invocation to Taranis, which would certainly explain why Elgar lingers over and repeats this particular stanza four times. Elgar’s depictions of the Druid maidens are certainly in line with Oriental culture of the day and the Orientalist preoccupation with the image of such women was certainly common. By setting such a section, Elgar aligns depictions of his Druid maidens with common images in painting of Oriental women. Acworth’s libretto reads:

Thread the measure left and right,

Druid maidens, clad in white,

Loose your locks, your bosoms bare,

Breathe the godhead brooding there,

Hov’ring round your floating hair,

Breathe the power — hearken well

For the coming of the spell.51

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