“The Italian method” and the “Italian gesture”. Musico-literary considerations on W. B. Yeats, Italian music and Italian composers

William Butler Yeats (1865-1939) is frequently and simplistically mentioned among (Irish) tone-deaf writers. His presence among them is based on some presumed admissions of musical incompetence by Yeats himself, which are often evoked – though never adequately examined - by scholars and witnesses from various sources. However, despite Yeats's own apparent confirmation of his non-musicality, if one scans carefully his life and works, they often show (what one may call) a remarkable and unique interest in classical music. My paper aims to briefly outline the Irish poet’s knowledge and experience of the repertoire of Italian classical music (e.g., directly: Palestrina, Bardi, Paganini, et al.; indirectly: Caccini, Monteverdi, Carissimi, Scarlatti, et al.) and his interaction with Italian composers operating in Ireland between the nineteenth and the twentieth century (e.g. Franco Leoni, Michele Esposito). They will be seen against the more general background of Yeats’s relationships with Italy and in the context of their socio-cultural implications. This paper is part of a wider musico-literary research project on W. B. Yeats: its results will be published in a book titled A tone-deaf poet in the Land of Song. Literary soundscapes in W. B. Yeats, which is being completed.