Timothy Adorno

Score analysis paper 2

After reading an essay called the Three ways of reading a detective story-Or a Brahms
Intermezzo by Edward T. Cone, who was an American born composer, pianist, music theorist as
well as a professor at Princeton University, the reader is likely to look at literature and music
from a new perspective. Cone encourages the reader to view literature and music with a specific
approach that will demand multiple readings or listenings, specifically three readings/listenings
that should harbor different intent, each have their own agenda throughout the listening.
Cone urges the reader that upon the first reading or listening to try and understand what
the work has to say or what happens in the work, to take into consideration how it makes you
think and feel. The first reading can only bring somewhat vague ideas of the events that transpire
in the intended work of analysis. The second listening is intended to be purely analytical, this
step may actually be more than just the second time the reader has read or listened to a specific
work take multiple readings, it is not until you have a clear idea of what the works intended
message/s may be analytical understanding of the work in question, then and only then should
the individual move on to the secondthat an individual can move on the third phase. The second
Third listening is to be of a synoptic analysis, meaning that the listener is now looking with a
more widened scope, ; a more macro approach that is atemporal not based on feelings but rather
on structure supported by the text. Cone suggests that the reader should keep an open mind
whilst while interpreting the text because in music there are ambiguities and different ways to
view some passages. The third reading is takes place after a thorough analysis and understanding
of form and structure as well as how and why events have transpired, what are the intentions of
the author/composer. The goal of the third reading is essentially to have an ideal first listening, .

in doing this he asks that the individual triesThe individual needs to put all that they have come
to understand about the piece out of the mind and to try and to feelinstead try to experience the
music from an informed perspective. but without allowing what studying has given you to get in
the way but merely aid in a complete understanding of the piece.
Cone had correlated the full understanding of the piece to be like that of a performance, a
performer may understand the work in an analytical perspective, but they must in a sense allow
the music to flow through them and obtainto create a sense of forgetting what comes next
because the individual is so absorbed in the actual moment of the story telling. The third listening
is supposed to be the most rewarding of the three because it should be akin to an epiphany, ; it
should be the one were the individual is most impacted by the composers intent.
Beethovens ninth symphony is the object of listening; it is a piece that evokes a wide
variety of emotions and questions of the composers intent upon the first listening. The piece has
a whimsical air about it, from the start, I realized a sense of homophony between most to all of
the instruments, the use of this technique brings about a larger sense of drama since/because it
adds a thickness to the texture. In The first listening, there is I experienced a sense of frivolity
and mystery giving the sense ofthat created an adventure-like quality., the second listening,
which the more analytical approach is using the score as an aid to try and understand what
Beethoven was doing musically.is the more analytical approach, involved using the score to
understand what Beethoven was doing musically. In tThe first six measures, all instruments take
turns playing the same rhythmic pattern. m.1 violins 1 & 2, viola, cello and contrabass all play a
dotted quarter note eight and then a quarter, the first note is a d D descending down an octave for
the other two notes. The next repeat of this pattern is in the same instruments but using an A note,
there are whole measures of rest on m.2,3 and 4in mm. 2-4 in , which leads up to dramatic hits

attack on the timpani in m.5, leading up to all but three instruments playing in unison matching
the very first measures.
There are many instances throughout the work where two or more voices are playing in
homophony and moving in similar motion as well as contrary motion whilst maintaining
rhythmic unisonwhile moving in either similar or contrary motion. Such One such case is in as
mm.14-18 where the violins and violas they are playing the same rhythm throughout but switch
between similar and contrary motion, many of the timeThere are numerous instances where the
instruments may be divided; in half playing in homophony and the others playing contrasting
rhythm. such asAn example of this can be found in mm.40-49 where the strings are playing
quarter notes on each beat, and the brass and winds, with the exception of the oboe, are playing
quarter notes on beat one with two quarter rests, and the horns in d and clarinets are playing
doted half notes tied for eleven measures. The use of homophony as well as contrasting rhythms
at the same time creates a very interesting dialogue between voices, this is something that in the
first listening is felt and understood subconsciously and not really understood until looking
throughanalyzing the score. and analyzing the piece, aAn analysis of what is happening
rhythmically/horizontally and vertically/harmony harmonically gives the listener a new and fresh
perspective. thus bringing tThe individual to now experiences the third listening, allowing for a
more richer and more enjoyable experience. a larger sense of understanding a more enjoyable
experience.