Structuri muzicale și dualitate emoțională în „Moderato cantabile” de Marguerite Duras

Abstract

Musical Structure and Emotional Duality in “Moderato cantabile” by Marguerite Duras
This paper analyzes the role of music as a structural, symbolic, and thematic principle in “Moderato cantabile” by Marguerite Duras, highlighting the way in which the musical indication in the title organizes both the narrative construction and the psychological evolution of the characters. Starting from the two piano lesson scenes and the repeated appearance of Anton Diabelli’s sonatina, the discussion shows that music plays a double role. On one side, it’s tied to rules, discipline, and the rigid order of bourgeois life. On the other, it opens a door to escape, to emotional release, and to moments of intense inner experience. The analysis draws connections between musical tempo and narrative rhythm, contrasts sound and noise - the sonatina against the scream - and even considers how music’s verticality interacts with the flatness of social space. In this sense, music becomes a bridge: between the private and the public, between a life kept in moderation and passions that push toward extremes. In the end, the paper argues that Moderato cantabile builds a poetics of duality, where music embodies the tension between measure and excess, order and desire, shaping Anne Desbaresdes’s drama and the novel’s deeper meaning.