I argue that Pound adopted the tritone and tritonic ratios as "permanent" symbols for genius and for the potential of a reciprocity between genius that would move fluidly, bi-directionally, through time. I identify and analyze several examples of Pound's application of great bass in the music and show how that application differs from one opera to the next as Pound, like his contemporary Henry Cowell, theorized the relationship of rhythm to tone through overtone ratios. It briefly introduces Pound's musical settings of texts of Villon, Cavalcanti, Sordello, and Catullus in two complete operas and one unfinished one reviews Pound's use of music as a form of criticism and investigates how Pound uses the voice to model his ideas about time, genius, and the continuity of poetic influence. This essay proposes a link between Ezra Pound's recovery of voices of the past and his recondite theory of great bass.
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