Abstract

Milton's Creation ("Paradise Lost", 7) does not arise "de nihilo". At the origin of the world there is a wild and unfathomable abyss: Chaos. The elusive nature of the first matter constitutes a crucial challenge for the poet: how to re-create in poetry a matter that has no shape nor boundaries? More than a century later F. J. Haydn faced a similar problem of representation during the composition of "Die Schöpfung". By the key-concepts of Chaos and Light, we aim to show how the two authors succeeded to overcome, in poetry and music, the challenge of Creation.