Fictive Performances: Oriental Music in Alexandre Dumas' the Count of Monte Cristo
Author(s): Joan DeJean
Source: Asian Music, Vol. 11, No. 1 (1979), pp. 99-105
Published by: University of Texas Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/833969 .
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DUMAS'
FICTIVE PERFORMANCES:ORIENTALMUSIC IN ALEXANDRE
THE COUNTOF MONTECRISTO
By
Joan DeJean
This article
to take a small step to extend
proposes
the territory
consideration
gained for ethnomusicological
Harrison
Time, Place and Music.
by Frank Harrison's
his anEthology of reports
based on first-hand
characterizes
of performances
as "a symptom of a new tendency
observation
of
in being a selective
contribution
to a documentation
of observation
some two and a half centuries
by Europeans
in continents
of music practices
other than Europe" (1973:1).
made by Europeans of the
descriptions
Many additional
life
of Asian music are to be found in a
performative
scholars:
area normally explored only by literary
textual
the nineteenth-century
the European novel,
especially
novel.
Unlike the reports Harrison collected,
historical
do not purport to be the result
these descriptions
usually
information.
What they can teach us about
of first-hand
is very different.
Asian music and its history
They can
show us less what Asian music was (or rather might have
that the accounts
been, since one should not forget
not made by scientific
Harrison records were generally
with untrained
but by curious travelers
observers,
eyes)
than what the novelist
imagined such music to be.
dreams of
Now, transcribing
European novelists'
what was for them completely
foreign music might seem of
for the modern ethnomusicologist
who
very remote interest
a wealth of more recent information
has at his disposal
and "scientific."
which is both first-hand
But these
a history
in tracing
novelistic
images could be invaluable
of Asian music and in tracing music's
of outside
visions
have recently
place in the phenomenon whose boundaries
I would
been redefined
Orientalism.
by Edward Said:
like to illustrate
the application
of one of Said's
theses to oriental
music:
principal
"The Orient was
almost a European invention"
(1978:1).
My examples will
be taken from Alexandre Dumas' novel,
The Count of Monte
Cristo (1844-5).
what can be accepted
Dumas consistently
presents
as a reasonably
accurate picture
of the prejudices,
and stereotypes
of the "average" nineteenthidees recues,
He is a true ancestor
of today's
century Frenchman.
as he wrote for as wide a public
novelists,
best-selling
as possible.
His novels are neither
too lowbrow, nor too
Most relevant
for my argument here is the
sophisticated.
99
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fact that Dumas is a master (perhaps the master of the
of what was an essential
trick of
nineteenth
century)
of his day who aimed at a
the trade for the novelist
Dumas
of exoticism.
the fabrication
broad audience:
is shifting
and ephemeral and
knows both that exoticism
He gives his public a
that it must not be too precise.
dose just big enough to make it feel displaced
(transbut not too much, for great
ported to another place),
in such matters would probably bore a reader
precision
pleasures.
seeking escapist
the Orient has
For the French reading public,
since 1
exoticism
been the breeding ground of novelistic
of the novel in the seventeenth
the beginnings
century.
serves as an excellent
The very word "Orient" itself
as the
of what I have just described
illustration
Its boundaries
exoticism.
structural
principle
governing
defined in the vaguest manner imaginable-are generally
or country can be and is called
any Eastern culture
the adjective
In Said's
"oriental."
formulation,
Asia or the East, geographically,
morally,
"designated
One could speak in Europe of an Oriental
culturally.
tale"
an Oriental
an Oriental
atmosphere,
personality,
the scope attributed
Whenever possible,
(1978:31-2).
In short,
for the French
is not limited.
to "oriental"
of
the Orient was shrouded in veils
reader of novels,
to remove
and he did not ask a novelist
ignorance,
about
but to wrap them ever more tightly
these veils,
For the Frenchman, the Orient was
his dream creature.
as other.
(is?) a vast sameness which he perceived
the Orient as "almost a European
Said describes
novelists
with a central
and he credits
invention,"
He
of the Orient.
role in the shaping of the fiction
and
a basic tenet of such authors as Voltaire
modifies
"to apply what one learns out of a book
Cervantes:
or ruin."
He
is to risk folly
to reality
literally
fiction
readers of orientalizing
feels
that, in fact,
and with far less extreme
often take just this risk,
"clearly
people have tried and do try
consequences:
a way, for otherwise
to use texts in so simple-minded
have the appeal
Candide and Don Quixote would not still
for readers that they do today" (1978:92-3).
According
to Said, in the case of the Orient and things oriental,
the reader of novels has his "reality"
shaped by a
of
The Orient is so much a creation
vision.
novelistic
that it can never be viewed without the
fictions,
of its fictional
reality.
deforming intervention
on the altar of fiction.
is sacrificed
Reality
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Said's argument certainly
seems convincing
when
to
on the examples of European voyagers
it is tested
the Orient and the accounts
they left of their travels.
of a novelist-voyager
It is obvious that the vision
is largely
controlled
like Flaubert
by fictional
images
In general,
and stereotypes.
however, Said's discussion
is constrained
of fiction
on reality
of the stranglehold
He only concerns
of two limitations.
by the imposition
and his
himself with so-called
"great" novelists,
to their
of their works is mainly confined
discussion
and not often opened up to their novels
travel accounts,
as well.
He notes only in passing what is, I believe,
on Western cliches
an even richer source of information
of the Orient:
of
There is a rather complex dialectic
reinforcement
by which the experiences
are determined by
of readers in reality
what they have read, and this in turn
to take up subjects
influences
writers
defined in advance by readers'
experiences
(1978:94).
to note that the descriptions
It is certainly
interesting
Flaubert wrote during
of the Orient found in the letters
there are shaped by ideas preconceived
his travels
through
role he
but, because of the best-selling
fiction,
a novelist
like Dumas presents
for himself,
envisions
of the
a more complex case of the fictionalization
is not always
Said makes it clear that Flaubert
Orient.
on "his" Orient.
of fiction
of the influence
conscious
on the other hand, must not only
The Dumas of the novel,
into
of fiction
aware of the intrusion
be constantly
seek out
but also actively
their dreams of exoticism,
is purely literary.
whose exoticism
just those visions
is characterized
universe
Dumas' literary
by great
he does not attempt to "create" the Orient
prudence:
their own
but simply to re-enforce
for his readers,
His readers did not learn from his novels,
creation.
in
reaffirmed
but only found their own preconceptions
as Said affirms,
And since his readers'
them.
knowledge,
the product of their previous
was almost exclusively
Dumas' Orient is not only totally
with novels,
experience
as well.
but doubly literary
fictional,
overt
certain
The Count of Monte Cristo contains
one of the most
reminders of this literary
doubling,
concerns Oriental
of which directly
striking
music's
who makes Monte
The character
in the novel.
presence
is a beautiful
musical theme possible
Cristo's
Greek slave,
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the most important woman in the novel,
since she in the
end manages to win the heart of its previously
She describes
herself
unattainable
hero.
as the daughter
of the "famous Albanian leader,"
the pacha
Ali-Tebelin,
of Janina, and his slave,
the "beautiful
Vasiliki."
After her father's
betrayal
by the French inspectorshe is sold into slavery
at
general of his troops,
where she becomes the property of the
Constantinople,
In
Sultan Mahmoud, who in turn sells
her to the Count.
addition
to this (fictional)
the Greek
historical
past,
a literary
slave through her name, Haydee, acquires
past
and so recent that it must have been
so striking
for the novel's
first
evident
public.
immediately
as the
"Haidee") has a past in fiction
"Haydee" (written
name of a beautiful
Mediterranean
woman, the image of
in the role of
true love for Monte Cristo's
predecessor
In Cantos
the unattainable
hero, Byron's Don Juan.
and has
II-IV of Byron's poem, Don Juan is shipwrecked
On the return of her
with his Haidee.
a love affair
and bought by
he is sold into slavery
father,
pirate
It is
none other than the Sultana of Constantinople.
love lent
that Don Juan's Mediterranean
quite likely
the
Dumas simply reverses
her name to the Count's.
to slavery by having Haydee sold to a
relationship
rather than his hero to a sultana.
sultan,
is a
This heroine with a past in literature
and it is her presence
that allows Dumas to
musician,
a fictionalized
not only of the Orient,
vision,
integrate
As one of the
but also of its music, into his novel.
"I
remarks upon meeting Haydee:
Count's friends
as I saw it,
not unfortunately,
the Orient,
recognize
but just as I imagined it in the heart of Paris" (1922:
woman and as an oriental
Both as an oriental
355).2
musician,
Haydee is very much a composite of cliches.
as what she is supposed
is designed to be recognizable
to encountering
to be by those who have come no closer
fantasies
than Parisian
musician-slave
a real oriental
of one.
Her every aspect is controlled
by what I have
exoticism:
of novelistic
as the ruling principle
described
to spice up a general vagueness.
just enough precision
"in
So, we are told that Haydee's apartment is furnished
manner" which for the novel means that it
the oriental
with
looks like a stage set of such an apartment,
Turkish carpets,
brocade wall-hangings,
and, in each
of cushions
[which]
room, "a large couch with piles
The slave's
dominated the chamber" (1922:218).
but not
are like Haydee herself,
different,
surroundings
for
natural
"Her posture,
so:
completely
threateningly
an oriental
woman, would have been rather affected
coquetry for a French woman" (1922:219).
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But it is Haydee's music that best illustrates
the
in The Count of Monte Cristo.
of Orientalism
functioning
on everyone
a particular
fascination
Her music exercises
in Dumas' novel,
and
because it is unexpected,
strange,
the very difficult
bizarre.
How does Dumas confront
task of making recognizable
to his readers
novelistic
of a type of music with which they are totally
the effects
it just as he would
unfamiliar?
He simply (re)creates
The first
create any other element of exoticism.
music in the novel is completely
performance of oriental
of a model
shrouded in mystery.
Haydee is the opposite
is never
for her music is heard, but she herself
child,
in the sitting
room to have
seen.
Two guests are waiting
with Monte Cristo:
breakfast
As the door opened the sound of a uzla
reached the ears of the young man, but
for the
was almost immediately
lost,
of the door merely allowed
rapid closing
the rich swell of harmony to enter the
salon (1894: II, 104).
as
The mystery surrounding
Haydee's music is cultivated
is
The "spectators'"
as possible.
curiosity
carefully
just whetted by the musical unknown before it disappears.
is satisfied.
It is a long time before that curiosity
author of the magical sounds only appears in
The mysterious
She
always at the opera'
public on rare occasions--and
in her national
dresses
costume, so all can immediately
On her first
her as Greek.
appearance at the
identify
Paris Opera, the only other thing about her that can be
is the fact that
to the eager Parisian
revealed
curiosity
one of the Count's breakfast
she is a musician:
guests
which
of hearing "the sounds of a guzla--sounds
tells
In the
could have been made only by her."
certainly
is verified
course of the same scene, his hypothesis
by
The guest mentions having heard this
Haydee's master.
strange music, and is told that "it was Haydee's guzla.
in her exile by
The poor child sometimes amuses herself
the airs of her country for me" (1894: III, 14).
playing
it is a long time before
After this "explanation,"
The same
the sounds of Haydee's music are heard again.
able to identify
former breakfast
guest who was so readily
loses this
the guzla for his opera companions apparently
and his loss of memory makes room for a more
ability,
of Haydee's musical enchantments.
detailed
description
He is having tea with Monte Cristo when he exclaims:
He then "leaned towards the door
"what do I hear?"
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to those of a guitar
through which sounds corresponding
were entering
His host once again identifies
[the room]."
their source as his slave's
guzla (1922:348).
is not confined
to
Haydee's musical universe
oriental
exoticism--she
also provides
a bridge between
Eastern and Western music.
Her excursions
are limited
to the opera, her only passion
and her only outside
she goes to the Opera
activity.
During certain
periods,
The Greek is first
seen by anyone other
every night.
than her master in Rome when she attends
a performance of
Donizetti's
Parisina.
What fascinates
the young slave
most on this particular
occasion
is the music accompanying
the ballet
When
"Poliska,"
staged during the interval.
the music is described
as "the furious
din
crashing
made
produced by the trumpets,
cymbals, and Chinese bells,
to produce their loudest
sound," Haydee's face becomes
and "she seemed to experience
an
"eager, animated,"
almost childlike
as she enjoys these echoes of
delight,"
her own musical exoticism
At her second
(1894: II, 89).
at the Paris Opera, Dumas' oriental
public appearance,
musician is onrrce again entranced by the music, this time,
Robert le Diable.
for
Here, Dumas gives an explanation
her taste in Western music:
absorbed
"Haydee was entirely
of the stage,
like all unsophisticated
by the business
she delighted
in whatever addressed
itself
to
natures,
the eye or ear" (1894: III, 19).
This reference
to Haydee's "unsophisticated
nature"
a final
clue to the role of oriental
music in
provides
The Count of Monte Cristo.
Whenever music is present
in
the novel,
it is linked to the figure of Haydee--beautiful,
and a never-ending
source of fascination
for
mysterious,
the Europeans who observe her.
Perhaps the origin of
is the fact that, by
Haydee's powers of fascination
In Dumas'
she lacks sophistication.
European standards,
of music, and all exotic
novel,
Haydee, representations
have at least
two things in common: their
descriptions
sensual appeal and their simplicity.
And if Dumas can
be said to give voice to the cliches
and idees recues of
the average nineteenth-century
Frenchman, then the image
of (oriental)
music traced by his novel could be useful
to any ethnomusicologist
concerned with the sociology
of
music or reception
theory.
It would be interesting
to search for the (literary)
of the stereotypes
Dumas re-enforces
in it, and
origins
also to explore the link his novel establishes
between
oriental
music and opera, since opera is perhaps the
most fertile
in the
breeding ground of musical cliches
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For example, according
European novel.
nineteenth-century
left
to the stereotypical
performance
image of an operatic
novelists
(and recorded,
naturally
by nineteenth-century
no one pays
enough, in the opera scenes in Monte Cristo),
to the music and stage action but the selfattention
and sophisticated
whose obsessive
styled connoisseurs,
like Haydee
and the simple-minded,
is satirized,
interest
and Emma Bovary, who enter into the stage drama as if it
of the readers
the fallacy
were reality,
thereby mirroring
forms of music,
fiction.
of escapist
Why were certain
to the musical unknown like oriental
both those belonging
music and those that were very much a part of the musical
to the status of essentially
known like opera, relegated
social
frivolous
by many nineteenth-century
pleasures
We can only begin to answer this and other
novelists?
scenes
by turning to the wealth of performative
questions
in the novels of the period.
NOTES
i.
role in the early
on the Orient's
For information
L'Orient romanesque
see M.J. Dufrenoy,
French novel,
en France (3 vols; Montreal:
Beauchemin, 1946-75)
and Pierre Martino, L'Orient dans la litterature
siecles
et dix-huitieme
au dix-septieme
francaise
1906).
Hachette,
(Paris:
2.
I use the English translation
of Monte Cristo
(1894)
of a passage
When its version
whenever possible.
I provide
what I wish to stress,
omits or alters
from the French (1922).
my own translation
REFERENCESCITED
Dumas, Alexandre
The Count of Monte Cristo,
1894
Brown and Co.
1922
Harrison,
1973
Said,
Le Comte de Monte Cristo,
Levy.
Boston.
Paris.
Little,
Calmann-
Frank
An Anthology of
Time, Place and Music:
c. 1550 to
Observation
Ethnomusicological
Frits Knuf.
c. 1800, Amsterdam.
Edward
1978
Orientalism,
New York.
Pantheon
Books.
105
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