Analysis: Art or Science - An Introduction Taken from Nicholas Cook’s A Guide to Analysis. 1. Why do it 2. History of Analysis up to 20 th century th century approaches 4. Some examples

Why do it ? To enable communication of ideas about a piece of music. Speculation and discussion. To help performers to memorise extended scores. To judge how it would have been if the composer had done something different. To recompose – composers learn through analysis of past works. To aid aesthetic appreciation and evaluation. To see the work as whole – and operating on a number of levels from the broad to the very detailed. Encourage attentive listening and inform the listeners perception of sound.

Traditional Methods Music has always attracted speculation – ideas of religion and cosmic harmony, etc. Wish to classify music – scales, chords, instruments. Ideas of comparative musicolo In the 19 th century this became more scientific though still largely descriptive.

Melody and Harmony Music described in terms of themes, tonal areas, and conformity to specific forms (sonata form, binary, rondo, etc ) – text book models. Example of Donald Tovey. Extended programme note approach. Chronological order, tabular format, constantly using traditional terms (theme, transition) – plenty of recourse to metaphor.

Methaphor A figure of speech by which a thing is spoken of as being that which it only resembles – I.e. when a ferocious man is called a tiger. In music – the melody resembled a river meandering gently and burbling over brooks and shallows. Hermeneutics – the science of interpretation. About the message or meaning in music. Non-technical descriptive writing about music that deals more with aesthetics rather than with the `how’ of music. Is this type of approach analytical in anyway or is it the opposite approach?

Dissatisfaction with traditional approach These set forms had never really existed in pure form. Invention of 19 th century writers on music – A.B. Marx in particular. Thematic relations overplayed - tonal function underplayed. Should not separate form and content. It was the functional, not the historical aspects of form, that really mattered.

Harmony – the most important aspect of content? Traditionally harmony is reduced to figured – bass notation, or some form of Roman-letter description. Both miss out large amounts of information – register, harmonics, timbre, etc. Roman letter – you have to decide what key you are in and where transitions occur. This involves analytical decisions that can be arguable. Gives no clear idea of how the music works and may complicate rather than reduce.

Schenkerian Analysis Includes both Schenker’s methods and the application of his ideas in post-war period. He saw pieces as temporally unfolding (elaboration) of the overtone series, and in particular of the major triad (exists as the first five partials of the overtone series). It aims to omit the essentials and highlight important relationships. Reduce down into a series of structural levels – ultimate background (chords or chord) of fundamental structure, middle ground with highlighting of important structural events, foreground with perceived melodic events.

More Schenker Piece can then be deconstructed into a series of graphs – which can be superimposed for the full view. Does not show true rhythmic values and developed its use of notation symbols. E.g. Filled noteheads with tails, like crotchets indicate middleground structures, and connections between them can be seen by following the line of the tails.

Problems with it Developed for Western Art music which emphasises harmony over other parameters. Developed for classical/romantic repertoire in particular, and is not so good at anything else. Where the piece does not get its meaning from the relationship between its detail and its whole, it begins to break down.

Other Forms 1. Psychological Approaches – how music is experienced. 2. Formal approaches- coding into symbols and deducing musical structure from the patterns that these symbols make. Techniques of comparative analysis – based on computer models and often developed for computer processing.

Often the approach is a composite To attempt a number of approaches or to develop your own based on someone else's model. Problems associated with Popular Music and Ethnomusicology where the relative importance of musical parameters may be very different (melody and harmony v. rhythm and timbre) and Western notation inappropriate. Melograph and Computerised methods and tools. However as the real aim is to enable communication - if the analysis does not do this it may fail.

Is it an art or science? Can it be right or wrong? Does the analysis fit the music? Does it say anything about the music that is of value? Does it claim to be scientific and impartial or is it subjective and reflect the interests of the analyst rather than the music? Does it communicate anything to anyone? Is it just a few specialist (university academics) speaking gobbledy-gook to other specialists (more university academics).