Wits and Interpretation : : Keyboard Thoughts.

• Author: Edlund, Bengt.
• Place / Publishing House: Frankfurt a.M. : : Peter Lang GmbH, Internationaler Verlag der Wissenschaften,, 2023.; ©2023.
• Year of Publication: 2023
• Edition: 1st ed.
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (466 pages)

This book offers critical demonstrations of various methods and concepts currently used in music analysis. Among the subjects are musical implications, tonal analysis, generative theory, ambiguity, similarity, and the key criteria met with in lawsuits of plagiarism. Finally, can a composer's sexual leanings be derived from his music?.

Table of Contents

Cover -- Copyright Information -- Table of contents -- Preface -- Chapter 1 On scores and works of music. Interpretation and identity -- Introduction -- Nelson Goodman's ontology of the music work -- Notational/non-notational vs. structural/interpretative signs -- Categorical production and categorical perception -- Recovering scores from performances -- Metric signs are non-notational and structural -- The beginning of Alban Berg's Piano Sonata -- A musically inclusive ontology of the music work -- Chapter 2 Sonate, que te fais-je? Towards a theory of interpretation -- Introduction -- Fidelity to the notes -- More on structural and interpretative signs -- Fidelity to the style -- Fidelity to the text -- Fidelity to the content -- Fidelity to the work -- The contribution of the interpreter -- Remarks on the interpretation of a Beethoven theme -- Conclusions -- Chapter 3 Directions and compliance -- Introduction -- Two passages from Beethoven's Piano Sonata Op. 110 -- Observations from the recordings -- Conclusions -- Chapter 4 Loyal disobedience. When is it OK not to play as written? -- From fidelity to loyalty -- Adding and omitting notes -- Compensating for the lack of keys -- Matters of proof-reading -- Voice-leading and manual rearrangements -- Two problematical transitions -- Disregarding the composer's indications -- Structural or interpretational signs? -- Matters of embellishment and variation -- Problems involving developments, codas, and introductions -- Further problems involving repeats -- Re-compositions -- Getting rid of embarrassing passages -- Omitting ill-matching movements -- Chapter 5 Recycling the Symphonic Etudes -- Coherence and unity in cyclic works -- Schumann's "Symphonic etudes/variations" -- A re-ordering process in three stages -- Evaluation of all possible pairs -- Evaluation of privileged groups.

Evaluation of integral sets -- Three attempts at corroboration -- Chapter 6 A comprehensive approach to musical idiomatic -- Introduction -- Idiomatic - a multifarious concept -- Schumann's Albumblatt and Brahms's variation -- Brahms, Intermezzo in E♭ minor -- Scriabine, Prelude in G♯ minor -- Chopin, Prelude in B major -- Prokofiev, Piano Sonata No. 8 -- Poulenc, Intermezzo in A♭ major -- Prokofiev, Piano Sonata No. 8 -- Idiomatic differences between instruments -- Chapter 7 Distant listening -- Introduction -- Distant listening - two conditions -- Evaluation of "Distant listening" -- Chapter 8 Reduction and interpretation -- Introduction -- Salzer's reduction of the antecedent -- Drabkin's amended reduction -- An alternative reduction -- The consequent -- Formal overview -- the transitions -- The second theme -- The varied repeat of the first theme -- the coda -- The entire movement -- Conclusions -- Chapter 9 Dissentient views on a minuet -- Introduction -- The first four bars and beyond -- The first period and beyond -- The second period and beyond -- The middle section -- The value of reduction when it comes to interpretation -- Starting from scratch -- Conclusions -- Chapter 10 Interpreting a bagatelle -- Is the form of Beethoven's Op. 126, No. 5 binary or ternary? -- A closing structural rise? -- Form or tonal form? -- The transition -- Conclusions -- Chapter 11 Tonal structure vs. modes of continuation -- Introduction -- Schenker's analysis -- The outer sections -- The middle section -- Motivic content and interpretation -- Preliminary observations -- An alternative bottom/up reduction -- Modes of continuation -- Options of interpretation -- Conclusions -- Chapter 12 Prelude to the art of continuation -- Introduction -- Interpretation and modes of continuation -- General premises for the analysis -- The F-minor Prelude: general observations.

Options of continuation -- the first part of the prelude -- The second part of the prelude -- Interdependence and constraints -- consistency -- The influence of interpretation on form -- Elements of variation -- Chapter 13 Interpretation as continuation -- Introduction -- Some preliminary observations on the Brahms Intermezzo -- The first thematic period -- The second thematic period -- The middle section -- The stringendo episodes -- Concluding remarks -- Chapter 14 Musical dialogue in a Romantic violin sonata -- Impersonation and dialogue in music -- Structural dialogue in Brahms's Violin Sonata Op. 100 -- The first theme - initial statement -- The first theme - second statement and transition -- The second-theme episodes, the piano interlude, and the transition -- The third theme and the transition to the development -- Expressing a sense of dialogue -- Cues for a sense of dialogue in performances of the sonata -- Conclusions -- Chapter 15 Chopin themes -- Introduction -- A theme starting seven times -- An introductory theme and its culminating return -- A bass theme and its possible sequel -- The Three D1's -- Chapter 16 Keyboard commentaries on K. 282 -- Introduction -- Youthful mistakes -- The main theme -- The first phrase -- A sense of elision? -- The second phrase -- metric peculiarities and virtual delays -- The second phrase -- linear connections -- The Coda - the main theme revisited -- Formal variety and matters of transition -- Inherent tempo shifts -- Ornamentation -- Matters of performance -- The theme as a tonal hierarchy -- Tensions in tonal space -- attractions and yearning -- A bottom/up implicational analysis -- Remarks on Meyer's commentary -- A gambit and the Gambit -- Music examples -- References -- Bibliography.