The stylistic perception of a musical work: an experimental and anthropological approach

Abstract

In this work the author will demonstrate, by means of a primarily experimental but also anthropological and psychoanalytical approach, that the perception of a musical piece is a hierarchical arrangement of changes, contrasts, and discontinuities perceived during the auditory process. He will also show that this hierarchy depends on cultural models acquired through acculturation or education and that, besides the different stereotypes and cultural models, this hierarchy reveals the structure of style as a symbolic musical representation of an existential experience of time. The comparison of the auditory structures of two piano pieces, one by Brahms, the other by Debussy, demonstrates that the strongly hierarchical structure of the Brahms piece develops a homogeneous and continuous musical time, an evolutionary time. By contrast, the weakly hierarchical structure of the Debussy develops a discontinuous and fractured musical time, a time reduced to a series of moments which makes Debussy's work the first instance of contemporary music.

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