Seminar, fall 2004

The course is based on the book manuscript whose abstract and keyword list are given below. A table of contents may be found here: table of contents. A conference paper that develops some of the ideas of the book in a preliminary way may be found at: Bristol paper, 2002.

Abstract: The practice of "music analysis" is analogous to close reading in literary studies, that is, its primary goal is interpretation, not analysis or description in any quasi-scientific sense. I argue that even linear analysis (after Schenker) can ground musical practices of interpretation, including those that are strongly contextual, given an adequate number of shapes in the thematic (or background) level: linear analysis thus becomes permanently self-reflective and can be positioned within a broader, complex discourse of interpretation.

Keyword list: Kofi Agawu, Paul B. Armstrong, Monroe Beardsley, David Bordwell, Christopher Butler, Seymour Chatman, Daniel Chua, Jonathan Culler, Umberto Eco, Robert Fink, Jean-Luc Godard, Marion Guck, Christopher Hasty, Julian Hook, Arthur Komar, Lawrence Kramer, David Ledbetter, Fred Lerdahl, Justin London, Susan McClary, Gerald Prince, Janna Saslaw, Carl Schachter, David Schulenberg, Robert Snarrenberg, Richard Taruskin, Lawrence Zbikowski; J. S. Bach, Beethoven, Chopin, Czerny, Gounod, Liszt, MacDowell, Moscheles, Pärt, Ravel, Sigmund Romberg, Schubert, Schumann, Shostakovich; The Girl of the Golden West, "Je vous salue, Marie," My Favorite Season, The Pianist, Prénom Carmen, Thirty Two Short Films about Glenn Gould.

Course requirements include reading in this and other sources, informal class presentations based on original research, and a seminar paper based on the presentations. In connection with chapter 4 of the book ms. we will also spend 3-4 weeks reading in Fred Lerdahl, Tonal Pitch Space in order to acquire a thorough understanding of linear analysis as description based in cognitive science versus linear analysis as interpretation based in traditional practices of the humanities. A course syllabus may be found here: syllabus for 688a seminar, fall 2004.

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