Analytical Strategies and Musical Interpretation: Essays on Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century Music

Abstract

This book is devoted to music analysis as an interpretive activity. Interpretation is often considered only in theory, or as a philosophical problem, but this book attempts to demonstrate and reflect on the interpretive results of analysis. Two associated types of practice are emphasised: ‘translation’, the transformation of one type of experience or art object into the musical work, the artistic attempt to persuade us that the new product is as valid as its original, or more so than its origin; and ‘rhetoric’, the attempt to persuade us, through structure, to accept the signifying power of the work. The unifying theme of the essays is the interpretive transformation of concepts, ideas and forms that constitutes the heart of the compositional process of nineteenth- and twentieth-century music. The repertoire discussed ranges from Schumann through Wagner, Mahler, Zemlinsky, Debussy, Schoenberg, Berg, Webern and Stravinsky to Carter and Birtwistle. • Reflects the current state of analytical thinking • Considers music analysis as a mode of interpretation • Contributions by distinguished British and American scholars Contents 1. Introduction: different trains Craig Ayrey; Part I. Translations; 2. Stravinsky's symphonies: accident or design? Stephen Walsh; 3. Transcription and recomposition: the strange case of Zemlinsky's Maeterlinck songs Derrick Puffett; 4. Symphony or symphonic scenes: issues of structure and context in Schumann's 'Rhenish' Symphony Michael Musgrave; 5. The poetry of Debussy's En blanc et noir Jonathan Dunsby; 6. Poem as non-verbal text: Elliott Carter's Concerto for Orchestra and Saint-John Perse's Winds Jonathan W. Bernard; Part II. Rhetorics; 7. Birtwistle's secret theatres Jonathan Cross; 8. The narrative impulse in the second Nachtmusik from Mahler's Seventh Symphony Kopi Agawu; 9. 'Von heute auf morgen': Schoenberg and the New Criticism Alan Street; 10. Misleading voices: contrasts and continuities in Stravinsky studies Anthony Pople; 11. Immortal voices, mortal forms Carolyn Abbate; 12. So who are you? Webern's Op. 3, No. 1 David Griffiths.

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