Books by Edward Klorman
For full details, including multimedia web resources, visit www.mozartsmusicoffriends.com.
In 18... more For full details, including multimedia web resources, visit www.mozartsmusicoffriends.com.
In 1829 Goethe famously described the string quartet as “a conversation among four intelligent people.” Inspired by this metaphor, Edward Klorman’s study draws on a wide variety of documentary and iconographic sources to explore Mozart’s chamber works as “the music of friends.” Illuminating the meanings and historical foundations of comparisons between chamber music and social interplay, Klorman infuses the analysis of sonata form and phrase rhythm with a performer’s sensibility. He develops a new analytical method called multiple agency that interprets the various players within an ensemble as participants in stylized social intercourse – characters capable of surprising, seducing, outwitting, and even deceiving one another musically. This book is accompanied by Web Resources that include original recordings performed by the author and other musicians, as well as video analyses that invite the reader to experience the interplay in time, as if from within the ensemble.
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Articles and Papers by Edward Klorman
Music Theory Online 24.4, 2018
This study examines historical writings about the “Classical” string quartet, a genre often compa... more This study examines historical writings about the “Classical” string quartet, a genre often compared to artful conversation. The conversation metaphor implicitly suggests “multiple agency” (Klorman 2016), whereby the four parts (or players) are interpreted as representing independent characters or personas. This paradigm contrasts sharply with the more monological musical personifications advanced in many recent writings on musical agency, such as Cone’s influential The Composer’s Voice (1974), which posit a “central intelligence” representing the “mind” of the composition, its fictional protagonist, or its composer. Focusing principally on discussions of Haydn’s and Mozart’s quartets in H. C. Koch’s Versuch (1793), J. J. de Momigny’s Cours complet (1806), and G. Carpani’s Le Haydine (1812), I examine whether instrumental personas postulated by each author constitute genuine agents, according to criteria developed in Monahan 2013. At issue is whether personas are described as possessing (1) such anthropomorphic qualities as sentience, volition, and emotion; and (2) a capacity for independent action or utterance.
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In this paper, I explore conceptions of creativity in musical performance in both popular and Wes... more In this paper, I explore conceptions of creativity in musical performance in both popular and Western art musics. I examine Cyndi Lauper’s iconic performance of the song “Girls Just Want To Have Fun,” which transformed the meaning of Robert Hazard’s original demo of the same song. I then analyze performance choices relating to structural cadences in Mozart’s Sonata in A minor, K. 310; Bach’s Cello Suite No. 1 in G major, BWV 1007; and Beethoven’s Sonata in Aflat major, op. 110.
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An Afternoon at Skittles: On Playing Mozart’s “Kegelstatt” Trio
Part II: Analyzing and Performing... more An Afternoon at Skittles: On Playing Mozart’s “Kegelstatt” Trio
Part II: Analyzing and Performing Musical Play
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An Afternoon at Skittles: On Playing Mozart’s “Kegelstatt” Trio
Part I: A Trio for Signora Dinimi... more An Afternoon at Skittles: On Playing Mozart’s “Kegelstatt” Trio
Part I: A Trio for Signora Dinimininimi, Nàtschibinìtschibi, and Pùnkitititi
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Notes 71, no. 4 (June 2015): 629–43
This study examines an 1804 essay about string quartet performance published in the Allgemeine mu... more This study examines an 1804 essay about string quartet performance published in the Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung and attributed to the Italian-born and Paris-domiciled composer/violinist Giuseppe Maria Cambini. The essay is frequently cited as evidence of the first professional string quartet, since it includes a detailed account of the rehearsal methods of an ensemble purported to have formed in Tuscany over a six-month period in the mid-1760s and comprising Boccherini, Nardini, Manfredi, and Cambini as its members.
A closer examination of the evidence reveals that this so-called “Tuscan” quartet is unlikely to have existed. The essay appears to be a highly embellished translation of a passing remark from Cambini’s earlier Nouvelle méthode théorique et pratique pour le violon (ca. 1795), possibly made at the instigation (and with the editorial intervention of) AmZ editor Johann Friedrich Rochlitz.
Although the essay is probably an unreliable source for quartet practices c. 1765, it offers compelling testimony to an emerging quartet ideology (especially in German-speaking lands) around the time of its publication in the early-nineteenth century. It may be among the earliest articulation of several influential ideas about quartets, including (1) the string quartet as an ensemble with stable personnel, (2) string-quartet repertoire as serious concert music demanding detailed rehearsal in advance of a performance for an audience, (3) unity of expression—four players sounding as one—as a goal of such rehearsal, and (4) extensive study and performance of quartets as foundational artistic training for all developing string players.
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This document provides an introduction to the theories of meter and phrase rhythm that are fundam... more This document provides an introduction to the theories of meter and phrase rhythm that are fundamental to Chapter 6 of Mozart’s Music of Friends by Edward Klorman.
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This document provides an introduction to the theories of sonata form that are fundamental to Cha... more This document provides an introduction to the theories of sonata form that are fundamental to Chapter 5 of Mozart’s Music of Friends
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The slow movement (Andante un poco adagio) of Brahms’s Sonata in F Minor for Piano and Clarinet, ... more The slow movement (Andante un poco adagio) of Brahms’s Sonata in F Minor for Piano and Clarinet, op. 120, no. 1, poses two significant challenges for a Schenkerian analysis: (1) pervasive, surface-level rhythmic displacements throughout the A section obscure the relationship between melody and bass; and (2) the B section is organized as a major-thirds cycle, a procedure that has often been regarded as incompatible with the underlying Diatonie of Schenker’s framework. This study develops two plausible interpretations of the ambiguous A section, of which one is selected for its clearer alignment of outer-voice counterpoint with formal function. The B section is analyzed as a ninth-progression, composed-out as a whole-tone scale. The chords of the major-thirds cycle are interpreted as consonant support for certain notes within that scale. In light of this movement’s ethereal quality (and of the nostalgia in much of Brahms’s late music), the juxtapositions of diatonic and chromatic spaces are interpreted in terms of Todesangst, since motives that require particular resolutions in diatonic contexts are relieved of such obligations when they recur in chromatic spaces.
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Reviews and Reports by Edward Klorman
Journal of Music Theory 62, no. 1 (April 2018): 155–64, 2018
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Nineteenth-Century Music Review 10, no. 2 (December 2013): 377–82.
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Eighteenth-Century Music 11, no. 2 (September 2014), 332–36.
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Music Theory Online 20.2 (May 2013)
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Ad Parnassum 12, no. 24 (October 2014): 157–62
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Musical Performances by Edward Klorman
Prelude, Allegro, and Pastorale (1941)
Rebecca Clarke (1886–1979)
Suzu Enns, clarinet
Edward Klo... more Prelude, Allegro, and Pastorale (1941)
Rebecca Clarke (1886–1979)
Suzu Enns, clarinet
Edward Klorman, viola
Audio/Video: Cole Barbour and Vanille Debray
Conservatoire de musique
Montréal, Québec
3 February 2018
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Elizabeth Knight, mezzo soprano
Edward Klorman, viola
Liza Stepanova, piano
Text and Translation... more Elizabeth Knight, mezzo soprano
Edward Klorman, viola
Liza Stepanova, piano
Text and Translations (English translations by Edward Klorman)
I. GESTILLTE SEHNSUCHT (FRIEDRICH RÜCKERT)
In gold'nen Abendschein getauchet,
Wie feierlich die Wälder stehn!
In leise Stimmen der Vöglein hauchet
Des Abendwindes leises Weh'n.
Was lispeln die Winde, die Vögelein?
Sie lispeln die Welt in Schlummer ein.
Ihr Wünsche, die ihr stets euch reget
Im Herzen sonder Rast und Ruh!
Du Sehnen, das die Brust beweget,
Wann ruhest du, wann schlummerst du?
Beim Lispeln der Winde, der Vögelein,
Ihr sehnenden Wünsche, wann schlaft ihr ein?
Ach, wenn nicht mehr in gold'ne Fernen
Mein Geist auf Traumgefieder eilt,
Nicht mehr an ewig fernen Sternen
Mit sehnendem Blick mein Auge weilt;
Dann lispeln die Winde, die Vögelein
Mit meinem Sehnen mein Leben ein.
I. LONGING FULFILLED
Steeped in the golden evening glow
How solemn the woods appear!
In gentle voices the little birds breathe
Into the soft fluttering of the evening breeze.
What does the wind whisper, and the little bird?
They whisper the world to sleep.
You, my desires, that ceaselessly stir
In my heart, without rest or peace!
You longings, that move my heart,
When will you rest? When will you sleep?
By the whispers of the wind and of the little bird,
You, longing desires, when will you slumber?
Ah, when no longer into the golden distance
Does my spirit hurry on dream-wings.
No longer on eternally distant stars
Does my longing gaze rest;
Then the winds and the little birds
Will whisper away my longing, along with my life.
II. GEISTLICHES WIEGENLIED (EMANUEL VON GEIBEL, AFTER LOPE FELIX DE VEGA CARPIO)
Die ihr schwebet
Um diese Palmen
In Nacht und Wind,
Ihr heilgen Engel,
Stillet die Wipfel!
Es schlummert mein Kind.
Ihr Palmen von Bethlehem
Im Windesbrausen,
Wie mögt ihr heute
So zornig sausen!
O rauscht nicht also!
Schweiget, neiget
Euch leis und lind;
Stillet die Wipfel!
Es schlummert mein Kind.
Der Himmelsknabe
Duldet Beschwerde,
Ach, wie so müd er ward
Vom Leid der Erde.
Ach nun im Schlaf ihm Leise gesänftigt
Die Qual zerrinnt,
Stillet die Wipfel!
Es schlummert mein Kind.
Grimmige Kälte
Sauset hernieder,
Womit nur deck ich
Des Kindleins Glieder!
O all ihr Engel,
Die ihr geflügelt
Wandelt im Wind,
Stillet die Wipfel!
Es schlummert mein Kind.
II. SACRED LULLABY
You who hover
Around these palms
In night and wind,
You holy angels,
Silence the treetops!
My child is sleeping.
You palms of Bethlehem
In roaring wind,
How can you
bluster so angrily today!
O roar not so!
Be still, bow
Softly and gently;
Silence the treetops!
My child is sleeping.
The child of heaven
Endures the discomfort,
Oh, how tired he has become
Of earthly sorrow.
Oh, now in sleep,
Gently softened,
His pain fades.
Silence the treetops!
My child is sleeping.
Fierce cold
Comes rushing.
How shall I cover
The little child’s limbs?
O all you angels
You winged ones
Wandering in the wind.
Silence the treetops!
My child is sleeping.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Uploads
Books by Edward Klorman
In 1829 Goethe famously described the string quartet as “a conversation among four intelligent people.” Inspired by this metaphor, Edward Klorman’s study draws on a wide variety of documentary and iconographic sources to explore Mozart’s chamber works as “the music of friends.” Illuminating the meanings and historical foundations of comparisons between chamber music and social interplay, Klorman infuses the analysis of sonata form and phrase rhythm with a performer’s sensibility. He develops a new analytical method called multiple agency that interprets the various players within an ensemble as participants in stylized social intercourse – characters capable of surprising, seducing, outwitting, and even deceiving one another musically. This book is accompanied by Web Resources that include original recordings performed by the author and other musicians, as well as video analyses that invite the reader to experience the interplay in time, as if from within the ensemble.
Articles and Papers by Edward Klorman
Part II: Analyzing and Performing Musical Play
Part I: A Trio for Signora Dinimininimi, Nàtschibinìtschibi, and Pùnkitititi
A closer examination of the evidence reveals that this so-called “Tuscan” quartet is unlikely to have existed. The essay appears to be a highly embellished translation of a passing remark from Cambini’s earlier Nouvelle méthode théorique et pratique pour le violon (ca. 1795), possibly made at the instigation (and with the editorial intervention of) AmZ editor Johann Friedrich Rochlitz.
Although the essay is probably an unreliable source for quartet practices c. 1765, it offers compelling testimony to an emerging quartet ideology (especially in German-speaking lands) around the time of its publication in the early-nineteenth century. It may be among the earliest articulation of several influential ideas about quartets, including (1) the string quartet as an ensemble with stable personnel, (2) string-quartet repertoire as serious concert music demanding detailed rehearsal in advance of a performance for an audience, (3) unity of expression—four players sounding as one—as a goal of such rehearsal, and (4) extensive study and performance of quartets as foundational artistic training for all developing string players.
Analysis and Performance Today: New Horizons
http://mtosmt.org/issues/mto.16.22.2/toc.22.2.html
Introduction to the Collection
by Daniel Barolsky (Beloit College) and Edward Klorman (Queens College and Graduate Center, CUNY; and The Juilliard School)
http://mtosmt.org/issues/mto.16.22.2/mto.16.22.2.barolsky_klorman.html
Art and Science, Beauty and Truth, Performance and Analysis?
Benjamin Binder (Duquesne University)
http://mtosmt.org/issues/mto.16.22.2/mto.16.22.2.binder.html
Analysis and Performance, or wissen, können, kennen
Daphne Leong (University of Colorado Boulder)
http://mtosmt.org/issues/mto.16.22.2/mto.16.22.2.leong.html
Ways of Knowing the Body, Bodily Ways of Knowing
Peter Martens (Texas Tech University)
http://mtosmt.org/issues/mto.16.22.2/mto.16.22.2.martens.html
The Score in the Performer’s Hands: Reading Traces of the Act of Performance as a Form of Analysis?
Fabio Morabito (King’s College London)
http://mtosmt.org/issues/mto.16.22.2/mto.16.22.2.morabito.html
Response
John Rink (University of Cambridge)
http://mtosmt.org/issues/mto.16.22.2/mto.16.22.2.rink.html
Response
Janet Schmalfeldt (Tufts University)
http://mtosmt.org/issues/mto.16.22.2/mto.16.22.2.schmalfeldt.html
Reviews and Reports by Edward Klorman
Musical Performances by Edward Klorman
Rebecca Clarke (1886–1979)
Suzu Enns, clarinet
Edward Klorman, viola
Audio/Video: Cole Barbour and Vanille Debray
Conservatoire de musique
Montréal, Québec
3 February 2018
Edward Klorman, viola
Liza Stepanova, piano
Text and Translations (English translations by Edward Klorman)
I. GESTILLTE SEHNSUCHT (FRIEDRICH RÜCKERT)
In gold'nen Abendschein getauchet,
Wie feierlich die Wälder stehn!
In leise Stimmen der Vöglein hauchet
Des Abendwindes leises Weh'n.
Was lispeln die Winde, die Vögelein?
Sie lispeln die Welt in Schlummer ein.
Ihr Wünsche, die ihr stets euch reget
Im Herzen sonder Rast und Ruh!
Du Sehnen, das die Brust beweget,
Wann ruhest du, wann schlummerst du?
Beim Lispeln der Winde, der Vögelein,
Ihr sehnenden Wünsche, wann schlaft ihr ein?
Ach, wenn nicht mehr in gold'ne Fernen
Mein Geist auf Traumgefieder eilt,
Nicht mehr an ewig fernen Sternen
Mit sehnendem Blick mein Auge weilt;
Dann lispeln die Winde, die Vögelein
Mit meinem Sehnen mein Leben ein.
I. LONGING FULFILLED
Steeped in the golden evening glow
How solemn the woods appear!
In gentle voices the little birds breathe
Into the soft fluttering of the evening breeze.
What does the wind whisper, and the little bird?
They whisper the world to sleep.
You, my desires, that ceaselessly stir
In my heart, without rest or peace!
You longings, that move my heart,
When will you rest? When will you sleep?
By the whispers of the wind and of the little bird,
You, longing desires, when will you slumber?
Ah, when no longer into the golden distance
Does my spirit hurry on dream-wings.
No longer on eternally distant stars
Does my longing gaze rest;
Then the winds and the little birds
Will whisper away my longing, along with my life.
II. GEISTLICHES WIEGENLIED (EMANUEL VON GEIBEL, AFTER LOPE FELIX DE VEGA CARPIO)
Die ihr schwebet
Um diese Palmen
In Nacht und Wind,
Ihr heilgen Engel,
Stillet die Wipfel!
Es schlummert mein Kind.
Ihr Palmen von Bethlehem
Im Windesbrausen,
Wie mögt ihr heute
So zornig sausen!
O rauscht nicht also!
Schweiget, neiget
Euch leis und lind;
Stillet die Wipfel!
Es schlummert mein Kind.
Der Himmelsknabe
Duldet Beschwerde,
Ach, wie so müd er ward
Vom Leid der Erde.
Ach nun im Schlaf ihm Leise gesänftigt
Die Qual zerrinnt,
Stillet die Wipfel!
Es schlummert mein Kind.
Grimmige Kälte
Sauset hernieder,
Womit nur deck ich
Des Kindleins Glieder!
O all ihr Engel,
Die ihr geflügelt
Wandelt im Wind,
Stillet die Wipfel!
Es schlummert mein Kind.
II. SACRED LULLABY
You who hover
Around these palms
In night and wind,
You holy angels,
Silence the treetops!
My child is sleeping.
You palms of Bethlehem
In roaring wind,
How can you
bluster so angrily today!
O roar not so!
Be still, bow
Softly and gently;
Silence the treetops!
My child is sleeping.
The child of heaven
Endures the discomfort,
Oh, how tired he has become
Of earthly sorrow.
Oh, now in sleep,
Gently softened,
His pain fades.
Silence the treetops!
My child is sleeping.
Fierce cold
Comes rushing.
How shall I cover
The little child’s limbs?
O all you angels
You winged ones
Wandering in the wind.
Silence the treetops!
My child is sleeping.
Charles Neidich, clarinet
Edward Klorman, viola
Liza Stepanova, piano
In 1829 Goethe famously described the string quartet as “a conversation among four intelligent people.” Inspired by this metaphor, Edward Klorman’s study draws on a wide variety of documentary and iconographic sources to explore Mozart’s chamber works as “the music of friends.” Illuminating the meanings and historical foundations of comparisons between chamber music and social interplay, Klorman infuses the analysis of sonata form and phrase rhythm with a performer’s sensibility. He develops a new analytical method called multiple agency that interprets the various players within an ensemble as participants in stylized social intercourse – characters capable of surprising, seducing, outwitting, and even deceiving one another musically. This book is accompanied by Web Resources that include original recordings performed by the author and other musicians, as well as video analyses that invite the reader to experience the interplay in time, as if from within the ensemble.
Part II: Analyzing and Performing Musical Play
Part I: A Trio for Signora Dinimininimi, Nàtschibinìtschibi, and Pùnkitititi
A closer examination of the evidence reveals that this so-called “Tuscan” quartet is unlikely to have existed. The essay appears to be a highly embellished translation of a passing remark from Cambini’s earlier Nouvelle méthode théorique et pratique pour le violon (ca. 1795), possibly made at the instigation (and with the editorial intervention of) AmZ editor Johann Friedrich Rochlitz.
Although the essay is probably an unreliable source for quartet practices c. 1765, it offers compelling testimony to an emerging quartet ideology (especially in German-speaking lands) around the time of its publication in the early-nineteenth century. It may be among the earliest articulation of several influential ideas about quartets, including (1) the string quartet as an ensemble with stable personnel, (2) string-quartet repertoire as serious concert music demanding detailed rehearsal in advance of a performance for an audience, (3) unity of expression—four players sounding as one—as a goal of such rehearsal, and (4) extensive study and performance of quartets as foundational artistic training for all developing string players.
Analysis and Performance Today: New Horizons
http://mtosmt.org/issues/mto.16.22.2/toc.22.2.html
Introduction to the Collection
by Daniel Barolsky (Beloit College) and Edward Klorman (Queens College and Graduate Center, CUNY; and The Juilliard School)
http://mtosmt.org/issues/mto.16.22.2/mto.16.22.2.barolsky_klorman.html
Art and Science, Beauty and Truth, Performance and Analysis?
Benjamin Binder (Duquesne University)
http://mtosmt.org/issues/mto.16.22.2/mto.16.22.2.binder.html
Analysis and Performance, or wissen, können, kennen
Daphne Leong (University of Colorado Boulder)
http://mtosmt.org/issues/mto.16.22.2/mto.16.22.2.leong.html
Ways of Knowing the Body, Bodily Ways of Knowing
Peter Martens (Texas Tech University)
http://mtosmt.org/issues/mto.16.22.2/mto.16.22.2.martens.html
The Score in the Performer’s Hands: Reading Traces of the Act of Performance as a Form of Analysis?
Fabio Morabito (King’s College London)
http://mtosmt.org/issues/mto.16.22.2/mto.16.22.2.morabito.html
Response
John Rink (University of Cambridge)
http://mtosmt.org/issues/mto.16.22.2/mto.16.22.2.rink.html
Response
Janet Schmalfeldt (Tufts University)
http://mtosmt.org/issues/mto.16.22.2/mto.16.22.2.schmalfeldt.html
Rebecca Clarke (1886–1979)
Suzu Enns, clarinet
Edward Klorman, viola
Audio/Video: Cole Barbour and Vanille Debray
Conservatoire de musique
Montréal, Québec
3 February 2018
Edward Klorman, viola
Liza Stepanova, piano
Text and Translations (English translations by Edward Klorman)
I. GESTILLTE SEHNSUCHT (FRIEDRICH RÜCKERT)
In gold'nen Abendschein getauchet,
Wie feierlich die Wälder stehn!
In leise Stimmen der Vöglein hauchet
Des Abendwindes leises Weh'n.
Was lispeln die Winde, die Vögelein?
Sie lispeln die Welt in Schlummer ein.
Ihr Wünsche, die ihr stets euch reget
Im Herzen sonder Rast und Ruh!
Du Sehnen, das die Brust beweget,
Wann ruhest du, wann schlummerst du?
Beim Lispeln der Winde, der Vögelein,
Ihr sehnenden Wünsche, wann schlaft ihr ein?
Ach, wenn nicht mehr in gold'ne Fernen
Mein Geist auf Traumgefieder eilt,
Nicht mehr an ewig fernen Sternen
Mit sehnendem Blick mein Auge weilt;
Dann lispeln die Winde, die Vögelein
Mit meinem Sehnen mein Leben ein.
I. LONGING FULFILLED
Steeped in the golden evening glow
How solemn the woods appear!
In gentle voices the little birds breathe
Into the soft fluttering of the evening breeze.
What does the wind whisper, and the little bird?
They whisper the world to sleep.
You, my desires, that ceaselessly stir
In my heart, without rest or peace!
You longings, that move my heart,
When will you rest? When will you sleep?
By the whispers of the wind and of the little bird,
You, longing desires, when will you slumber?
Ah, when no longer into the golden distance
Does my spirit hurry on dream-wings.
No longer on eternally distant stars
Does my longing gaze rest;
Then the winds and the little birds
Will whisper away my longing, along with my life.
II. GEISTLICHES WIEGENLIED (EMANUEL VON GEIBEL, AFTER LOPE FELIX DE VEGA CARPIO)
Die ihr schwebet
Um diese Palmen
In Nacht und Wind,
Ihr heilgen Engel,
Stillet die Wipfel!
Es schlummert mein Kind.
Ihr Palmen von Bethlehem
Im Windesbrausen,
Wie mögt ihr heute
So zornig sausen!
O rauscht nicht also!
Schweiget, neiget
Euch leis und lind;
Stillet die Wipfel!
Es schlummert mein Kind.
Der Himmelsknabe
Duldet Beschwerde,
Ach, wie so müd er ward
Vom Leid der Erde.
Ach nun im Schlaf ihm Leise gesänftigt
Die Qual zerrinnt,
Stillet die Wipfel!
Es schlummert mein Kind.
Grimmige Kälte
Sauset hernieder,
Womit nur deck ich
Des Kindleins Glieder!
O all ihr Engel,
Die ihr geflügelt
Wandelt im Wind,
Stillet die Wipfel!
Es schlummert mein Kind.
II. SACRED LULLABY
You who hover
Around these palms
In night and wind,
You holy angels,
Silence the treetops!
My child is sleeping.
You palms of Bethlehem
In roaring wind,
How can you
bluster so angrily today!
O roar not so!
Be still, bow
Softly and gently;
Silence the treetops!
My child is sleeping.
The child of heaven
Endures the discomfort,
Oh, how tired he has become
Of earthly sorrow.
Oh, now in sleep,
Gently softened,
His pain fades.
Silence the treetops!
My child is sleeping.
Fierce cold
Comes rushing.
How shall I cover
The little child’s limbs?
O all you angels
You winged ones
Wandering in the wind.
Silence the treetops!
My child is sleeping.
Charles Neidich, clarinet
Edward Klorman, viola
Liza Stepanova, piano
Charles Neidich, clarinet
Edward Klorman, viola
Liza Stepanova, piano
Charles Neidich, clarinet
Edward Klorman, viola
Liza Stepanova, piano
Fantasie
Tema mit Variationen
Finale (mit Variationen)
Edward Klorman, viola
Charles Tauber, piano
Recorded in recital at Harris Hall, Aspen Music Festival
The accompanying handout may be viewed or downloaded below.
Abstract: This study presents a new model for analyzing metrical manipulations in chamber music in relation to performers’ actions and agency. Taking as a point of departure the traditional metaphor of chamber music as a musical “conversation,” this study regards the individual instrumental parts as characters or personas (Cone 1974). This perspective of multiple agency (Klorman 2011) directs analytical attention to the metrical interplay enacted by the players within the ensemble (cf. Lewin’s “transformational attitude”). Instead of examining metrical events as they are experienced by outside listeners, the focus is on metrical manipulations as they are created, in performance, by multiple personas.
As the self-determining authors of their own utterances, the personas possess agency to trigger metrical preference rules (Lerdahl/Jackendoff 1983) that either support or oppose the prevailing meter—as well as one another. Metrical manipulations can thus arise not only from neutral conflicts among inanimate musical elements but from the purposive actions of musical personas. This study examines passages by Mozart and other composers in which the characters apply their agency toward opposing ends, in order to surprise, dispute, or tease one another in a lively metrical interplay. This method—which reveals some metrical manipulations that are masked by traditional, unitary perspectives—suggests performance nuances that are consistent with some eighteenth-century performance treatises and may inspire more dynamic performances.