[Smt-talk] Advice concerning analytical approaches to recitative

[Nicolas Meeùs]

Jeff,

My former student Bertrand Desbordes wrote in 2001 a most interesting 
PhD thesis devoted to the analysis of Mozart's recitatives. A short 
description is available on http://www.worldcat.org/search?q=no%3A492444194.

For reasons that remain unclear to me, this thesis does not seem to ever 
have been published, even not in microfilm form, and the only public 
copy seems to be that in the library of theses in the Sorbonne (and, 
even there, I wonder to what extent it can be seen). I must have a 
printed copy somewhere.

Bertrand had performed an extensive statistical study of the harmonic 
root progressions in the recitatives and shew not only that the 
situation in Mozart was statistically different from that of his 
contemporaries, but even more that the statistics changed during his 
career (especially after his return form Italy, if I remember well). He 
also came to the conclusion that the recitatives were so to say atonal. 
This was the first application by one of my students of my theory of 
"harmonic vectors".

Nicolas Meeùs
Université Paris-Sorbonne
http://nicolas.meeus.free.fr
http://heinrichschenker.wordpress.com



Le 10/12/2012 22:15, Jeffrey Perry a écrit :
> All--
> In the new term that begins next month, I will be offering a graduate 
> music theory seminar on music and text. The clientele will be a 
> heterogeneous group of performers, music scholars, composers, and 
> conductors. I'd like to include a unit on something that has always 
> interested and perplexed me, namely recitative. It seems to me that 
> recit has not been studied analytically as well as it has been 
> scrutinized historically. I humbly request your ideas for repertoire 
> and analytical literature that I might introduce in this context.
> With best wishes,
> jp
> Jeff Perry
> Professor of Music Theory
> 275 Music and Dramatic Arts
> School of Music, College of Music & Dramatic Arts
> Louisiana State University
> jperry at lsu.edu / (225) 578-3556 (voice) / (225) 578-2562 (fax)
>
> //
>
>
>
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