[Smt-talk] Beethoven's Sonatas

[Walt Everett]

Dear list,

I find Jonathan Dunsby's statement, here, fascinating:
>  
> Pinning a word to an abstracted musical object seems, well, doubly, utterly weird, although music-cognition people do it all the time. I personally think they are fantasizing, but there we are.
>  
Weird, perhaps.  Yet such pinning and fantasizing are exercises into which we're drawn if we don't ignore Debussy's instruction to perform ". . . Des pas sur la neige" in a sad manner, given the tempo indication ("Triste et lent") and the special note at the outset, "Ce rythme doit avoir la valeur sonore d'un fond de paysage triste et glacé," to point to just one example connected to the concept of sadness, with which this thread began.  The exercise suggests many challenges, and none of us deplores a rich fantasy life, I hope.

best, walt everett

Walter Everett
Professor of Music
Department of Music Theory
The University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre & Dance
1100 Baits Dr.
Ann Arbor, MI  48109-2085

weverett at umich.edu
voice: 734-763-2039
fax: 734-763-5097

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.societymusictheory.org/pipermail/smt-talk-societymusictheory.org/attachments/20120224/fd840449/attachment-0004.htm>