[Smt-talk] warm thanks for quick query

[Nicolas Meeùs]

It seems to me that the question remains open, though. Burmeister did 
describe his project as "analysis", but was it what we would call analysis?

Analysis, for Burmeister, is the "resolution of the work in affects and 
periods" (/Resolutio carminis in affectiones, sive periodos/), that is 
its organization as a rhetorical discourse. The first affect/period, he 
says, is the /Exordium/, calling the attention of the hearer. Then comes 
a variety of affects forming the body of the work, which should remain 
of moderate dimensions lest it causes disgust. And the work ends with 
the /Finis/, by which the imminence of the end enters more clearly the 
minds of the hearers. This is a normative description: Burmeister's aim 
is of providing a model for young composers.

The analysis of Lasso's /In me transierunt /consists in two paragraphs 
only, without any explicit reference to the music. The first paragraph 
is concerned with the mode and the ambitus of the individual voices: the 
piece is in authentic phrygian mode, in diatonic genre. The work is then 
described as consisting in nine periods, the first of which is the 
/Exordium/, the last the /Finis/, and the seven in between the /Corpus 
harmoniae/. No attempt is made to identify these in the score (they 
might correspond to the phrases of the text, so far as I can remember; I 
don't have Lasso's score at hand just now). Each of these seven periods 
is said to include a few specified figures (specified by their names: 
hypotyposis, climax, anadiplosis, anaphora, mimesis, pathopoeia, fuga, 
noëma), but it remains extremely difficult to actually identify any of 
these in the score, and Burmeister provides no indication to this effect.

Is that an analysis in any modern (or less modern) sense of the word? I 
really doubt so. Certainly, Burmeister's concern with the rhetorical 
organization of a musical composition is a landmark in the history of 
music theory and analysis; but was his an "analysis"?

*******

Most of you will be too young to remember the definitive statement (in 
his inimitable German accent) of Prof. Bruno Heinz Jaja, interviewed in 
London by Richard Hoffnung: "Muzik began venn Jönberg invented the 
tonerove".
Let me paraphrase it: "Muzik analuse began venn Jenker invented the Ursatz".

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


Le 14/02/2013 17:54, Michael Morse a écrit :
> Dear Folks,
>
>   Huge thanks to one and all for the prompt, succinct, and very 
> helpful replies. The line between music example, commentary, and 
> analysis is indeed porous, but I was surprised and pleased to see the 
> consensus around the Burmeister (which I recall reading, back 
> when dinosaurs strode the land--presumably mounted by creation 
> scientists? but I digress).
>
> Again Thanks, Cheers & Best,
>
> Michael
>
> Michael Morse
> Trent University
> Peterborough, Oshawa
>

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