STYLE, GESTURE,

AND INTENT
BIG QUESTIONS
WHICH REIGNS SUPREME:
TEXT OR SOUND?
HOW DO WE JUDGE
EFFECTIVE
INTERPRETATION?
WHAT IS MUSIC?
 LAST WEEK
SEMIOTICS AND HERMENEUTICS

• The score became more than a series of directions, but rather the
embodiment of the music in its ideal state

• Berlioz added specific directions to the score to the players going

beyond what is traditionally notated in the score (specific sticking
in timpani part; locations on the string/bow)

• Beethoven notating “nightingale”, “quail”, and “cuckoo” in the

woodwind parts of the Pastorale

• Brahms famously refused to attend a performance, noting that he

could see and hear the perfect performance on the page and in
his head.
 HOW MUCH CAN WE STRIP
AWAY FOR SOMETHING TO
STILL BE CONSIDERED MUSIC?
 BERLIOZ
SYMPHONIE FANTAS TIQUE: IV
 BERLIOZ
SYMPHONIE FANTAS TIQUE: V
 STRAVINSKY
RITE OF SPRING: GLORIFIC ATION OF THE SACRIFICE
 WITOLD LUTOSŁAWSKI
(1913-1994)

• Polish composer

• Utilized Polish folk music,

aleatory, and tropes of pre-
modern Western art music

• Oeuvre spans light music to

extremely complex
contrapuntal/harmonic
constructions, framed within
aleatoric structure
LUTOSŁAWSKI
SYMPHONY NO. 4
LUTOSŁAWSKI
SYMPHONY NO. 4
 THE SCORE
COMPOSER’S INTENT?

• Is there a point at which the specificity provided by the composer

prevents literal performance OR requires elements of aleatory to be
introduced?

• Aperghis: Triangle Carré

• Requires the three percussionists to also play violin, viola, and

cello, as well as requires notes outside of the range of the
woodwind instruments (played without multiphonics)

• Hyper-specificity introducing new ambiguities, though perhaps

removing older ones

• When focus shifts to extended technique, onus of responsibility

falls more on player than conductor
 PURCELL
DIDO AND AENEAS: DIDO’S L AMENT
 PURCELL
DIDO AND AENEAS: DIDO’S L AMENT
 MUSIC
VS.
PERFORMANCE ART
• Chuck Berry & John Lennon (& Yoko Ono): Memphis, Tennessee
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h9kgu71d81U

• John Cage: 4’33” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oh-

o3udImy8

• Peter Kubelka: Unsere Afrikareise https://www.youtube.com/

watch?v=XgdlCqrVEuE
• John Cage on silence: https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=pcHnL7aS64Y
• John Cage on silence: https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=pcHnL7aS64Y
• Is An Index of Metals music or performance art? Or both? Or
neither?

• Pink Floyd: Shine On, You Crazy Diamond (1975) https://

www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UXircX3VdM

• Fausto Romitelli: An Index of Metals (2003) https://

www.youtube.com/watch?v=9CN10YxG3p0&t=342s
WHICH REIGNS SUPREME:
TEXT OR SOUND?
WHAT IS MUSIC?
PART 2
 MUSIC
AND
MEANING
 MUSIC
AND
MEANING
(Hey, that’s the title of the seminar!)
 TOPOI
RATNER AND ALL ANBROOK

• Ratner: Classic Music

• Allanbrook: Rhythmic Gesture in Mozart

 DANCES
ARE MORE
THAN FUN
 MINUET
NOBILIT Y AND ELEGANCE

• Arose in prominence in early

17th-century France

• Implemented en masse in
French opera by Lully (who J.C. Bach: Symphony in Eb (Op. 9, No. 2)
also introduced the
formalization of a minuet and
trio structure)

Beethoven: Symphony No. 1 (Op. 21)

• Within a century, the rhythm
became both a trope in
opera to represent nobility
and a standard element of
the symphonic structure

Mozart: Le nozze di Figaro (“Se vuol ballare…”)

 MINUET
REL ATED DANCES

• Sarabande (Spanish Mozart: Symphony No. 41, ii (Sarabande)

influence, in triple meter, with
the second beat emphasized)
originally offering an exotic
or profane alternative to the
minuet, but later adopted as
a stately court dance. La Folia (late variant)

• Ländler (Austrian/South
German triple meter dance
with emphasized or dotted
third beat) offering a more
rustic alternative to the slow
triple meter minuet.
Bruckner: Symphony No. 6, iii - Trio
 LA FOLIA
BEETHOVEN: SYMPHONY 5, II

i V i bVII
 LA FOLIA
BEETHOVEN: SYMPHONY 5, II

bIII bVII i V
 CONTREDANSE
SALTATUS PLEBS

• Brisk duple meter dance,

originating in British isles

• Appreciated first by common folk,

J.S. Bach: Partita in B minor (1720)
and then appropriated into royal
courts

• “The melodies of contredanses are

most often in duple time; they
should be well-articulated, brilliant, Mozart: Piano Concerto in G Major, iii
and gay, and still should be quite
simple; since they must be heard
many times, they will become
intolerable if they are over-ornate.
In every genre, the simplest things
are those that tire least.” 

- Jean Jacques Rousseau (1768)
Mozart: Le nozze di Figaro (“Se vuol ballare…”)
 CONTREDANSE
REL ATED DANCES

• Gavotte: lively dance in duple time

beginning with an anacrusis,
occasionally with a caesura after
the second quarter note of the Prokofiev: Symphony No. 1, iii
measure

• Gigue: dance in 3/8 or 6/8 time

originating from the British jig,
never incorporated into courtly
dance, though occasionally danced
by royalty J.S. Bach: Suite in A minor (BWV 818a)

• March: slow (or moderate) duple

meter evoking military or noble
qualities, including dotted or
inegales rhythms (expanded to
become French Overture)
Wagner: Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (Prelude)
INTERPRETATION
AND
PERFORMANCE
FIGARO
 FIGARO
ACT I - OPENING
 FIGARO
ACT I - OPENING
 FIGARO
ACT I - BARTOLO’S ARIA
 CONTRAST FROM MOZART’S
EARLY OPERATIC STYLE
• Rejection of wit for wit’s sake:

• In Lucio Silla, Mozart makes a musical pun, by having the

longest held vocal note in the opera be on the word
“tenero” (tender), but before the final syllable, could be
heard as “tener” (to hold)

• Depicts “venerated souls” with upward chromatic lines and

“sorrowing urns” with chromatic descent. Harmonized with
omnibus.

• Aufidio’s aria in Act II displays a feigned machismo, with

ironic dotted military/inegales rhythms
DON GIOVANNI
APOTHEOSIS OF
SOCIAL GESTURE
 ENDING WITH SOME CONTROVERSY

• Mozart: Don Giovanni (Champagne Aria - as staged by Peter

Sellars): https://youtu.be/vMXU5pjhPTM?t=1h7m9s