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Theory, Analysis and Meaning in Music, edited by Anthony Pople. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1994. xiv + 226 pp. ISBN 0 521 45236 8.

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Theory, Analysis and Meaning in Music, edited by Anthony Pople. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1994. xiv + 226 pp. ISBN 0 521 45236 8.

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2020

Nicholas Marston*
Affiliation:
University of Oxford

Abstract

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Type
Reviews
Copyright
Copyright © 1995 Royal Musical Association

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References

1 Kerman, Joseph, ‘How we Got Into Analysis, and How to Get Out’, Critical Enquiry, 7 (1980), 311–31 A particular target of Herman's critique is of course the analyst's frequent concern for ‘organic unity‘Google Scholar

2 See Kerman, , Musicology (London, 1985), 228, for the reference to ‘broader and more humane’ criticism; also the remarks of Kinderman in Beethoven's Compositional Process, ed William Kinderman (Lincoln and London, 1991), ixGoogle Scholar

3 Superior Myths, Dogmatic Allegories The Resistance to Musical Unity’, Music Analysis, 8 (1989), 77123 (see esp. p 101)Google Scholar

4 Ibid., 102Google Scholar

5 Ibid., 105, 121Google Scholar

6 Ibid., 121Google Scholar

7 Carolyn Abbate and Roger Parker, ‘Introduction On Analyzing Opera’, Analyzing Opera Verdi and Wagner, ed Carolyn Abbate and Roger Parker (Berkeley, Los Angeles and London, 1989), 124 (p. 4)Google Scholar

8 Webster, James, ‘To Understand Verdi and Wagner we must Understand Mozart’, 19th Century Music, 11 (1987–8), 175–93; cf the comments of Jonathan Cross on ‘the individual modern work of art’ in the volume under review, p 186 (all further page references to Theory, Analysis and Meaning in Music are given in parentheses in the text) ‘If a form is built of many apparently contradictory components, this does not necessarily invalidate it as a legitimate aesthetic statement It can nevertheless be perceived as coherent, and the “relatedness” or connectedness of the parts is not seen to be achieved by subsuming them under some magical, all-encompassing law of unity imposed from outside of the work’ For responses to Webster's call for ‘multivalent’ analysis see Carolyn Abbate and Roger Parker, ‘Dismembering Mozart’, Cambridge Opera Journal, 2 (1990), 187–95, and James Webster, ‘Mozart's Operas and the Myth of Musical Unity’, ibid., 197–218.Google Scholar

9 See Abbate, Carolyn, Unsung Voices Opera and Musical Narrative in the Nineteenth Century (Princeton, 1991), Lawrence Kramer, Music as Cultural Practice, 1800–1900 (Berkeley, 1990), Musicology and Difference Gender and Sexuality in Music Scholarship, ed Ruth A Solie (Berkeley, 1993), Fred Lerdahl and Ray Jackendoff, A Generative Theory of Tonal Music (Cambridge, Mass, 1983).Google Scholar

10 Indeed, evidence of a ‘pack instinct’, or the urge to seek safety in numbers in face of threats to the survival of the species, might be sought in the recent formation in Britain of a Society for Music Analysis and a Critical Musicology group, each with its associated conference The proliferation of such ‘pressure groups’ contrasts with that celebration of the delights of pluralism that is such a conspicuous feature of present musicological debateGoogle Scholar

11 Music Analysts, 13 (1994), 35 (p. 4).Google Scholar

12 Street, Alan, ‘Carnival’, Music Analysis, 13 (1994), 255–98 (pp 290–1).Google Scholar

13 Dunsby, Jonathan, ‘Music Analysis Commentaries’, Companion to Contemporary Musical Thought, ed John Paynter et al (London, 1992), ii, 634–49 (p 640)Google Scholar

14 Dunsby cites Kevin Korsyn, ‘Towards a New Poetics of Musical Influence’, Music Analysts, 10 (1991), 372; see also Joseph N. Straus, Remaking the Past (Cambridge, Mass, 1990). The Thirtieth Annual RMA Conference (Trinity College, Cambridge, 31 March-2 April 1995) was devoted to ‘Influence’, and the titles of two papers made explicit reference to Bloom's work Dunsby's observation (p. 82) that ‘in recent times scholarly protocol has itself become the central criterion of correctness in music theory and analysis’ is appositeCrossRefGoogle Scholar

15 Korsyn, ‘Towards a New Poetics of Musical Influence’, 60, quoted by Dunsby, p 83n, and followed by his question.Google Scholar

16 See, for example, Music Analysis in the Nineteenth Century, ii, Hermeneutic Approaches, ed Ian Bent (Cambridge, 1994).Google Scholar

17 In view of Agawu's later emphasis on the role of context in the resolution of apparent musical ambiguities, it seems strange that he does not explicitly acknowledge the equally decisive role of context in instances of verbal ambiguity such as those he cites on p. 89Google Scholar

18 Agawu's argument concerning ‘Am leuchtenden Sommermorgen’ naturally assumes that his token listener is making judgments in the absence of a score of the song; even if one were to consult no more than the first bar of the score, the notation of the ‘ambiguous’ harmony (and of course the overall key signature) would tilt the balance decisively in favour of its interpretation as ♭VI#6/B♭ rather than as V'/B Another contextual factor Agawu does not raise is our customary hearing of the opening of song 12 after the E♭ major ending of song 11Google Scholar

19 For an exhaustive examination of the importance of the subdominant degree in Beethoven's conception of this quartet, see Winter, Robert, Compositional Origins of Beethoven's Opus 131 (Ann Arbor, 1982)Google Scholar

20 To take another approach, it might be argued that my formulation of this situation as involving the mutation of one triadic function into another already implies the hierarchical superiority of the initial functionGoogle Scholar

21 It might be fruitful to consider the notion of musical ambiguity in relation to the concept of ‘hearing as’ discussed by Naomi Cumming in her essay ‘Metaphor in Roger Scruton's Aesthetics of Music’ (see esp. pp 14–21)Google Scholar

22 It is remarkable to note that the linguistic shift was already under way as early as 1935, the year of Schenker's death, see the discussion of the work of Waldeck and Broder, pp 45–6.Google Scholar

23 Snarrenberg's discussion of Babbitt in this respect is well complemented by the following essay, ‘Rehabilitating the Incorrigible’, by Marion A Guck, which takes as its starting-point Babbitt's call for ‘scientific’ language and method in the investigation of musical worksGoogle Scholar

24 See Anthony Pople's essay, ‘Systems and Strategies. Functions and Limits of Analysis’, pp 109–15, for a further consideration of ‘top-down’ and ‘bottom-up’ strategies of processing musical information The great majority of Schenker's unpublished papers is preserved in the Ernst Oster Collection at the New York Public LibraryGoogle Scholar