Full Description
While interpretation of musical scores is amongst the most frequent of musical activities, it is also, strangely, one of the least researched. This collection of essays seeks to remedy this deficit by illuminating ways in which today's curious musician - interested in probing beyond the dictates of a faintly understood score - can engage more deeply and thoughtfully with the act of interpretation. Skilful musical interpretation draws on a vast range of knowledges. The chapters of this collection accordingly address a similarly broad set of issues, including notation, rhetoric, theory, historiography, performers past and present, instrument builders, concert presenters, reception history, and more.
Written by leading experts from a variety of musical subdisciplines, these essays are designed to be accessible and practically relevant for musical performance. Many of the chapters utilize case studies and, as such, will be useful for university and conservatory level students as well as music scholars.
The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of the Journal of Musicological Research.
Contents
1. Introduction: Topics in Musical Interpretation, Continuing Dialogues, 2. The Case of Beethoven: A Tie by Any Other Name..., 3. Musical Topoi in Brahms's 7 Fantasien, Op. 116, 4. Should the End of a Phrase be Emphasized? An Essay in Musical Prosody, Challenging Dialogues, 5. What Can Performance and Theory Teach Each Other?, 6. Beyond the Interpretation of Music, Starting New Dialogues, 7. Arrangement Practices in the Bach Tradition, Then and Now: Historical Precedent for Modern Practice, 8. Listening to Builders, 9. Gould and Liberace, or the Fate of Nineteenth-Century Performance Culture, 10. Do They Still Hate Horowitz? The "Last Romantic" Revisited
