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I used to teach that analysis is about what is not heard, but that
any analysis is wrong that can't be heard. My students derided me
for these contradictory statements. What I meant, however, is that
analysis is about helping to hear what was not heard at first.<br>
<br>
The somewhat rousseauan idea of a "virgin" listener, not yet
deformed by previous hearings of the piece, appears to make sense.
Yet, first-time listeners usually miss much of the music.<br>
<br>
Besides, adding musical examples in a book about the history of
opera is not necessarily about structural analysis. It may merely
help reminding previous experiences of the works. The whole idea to
deal in text with works unheard seems odd to me. But if the music
already is known, reminding it with musical examples seems the right
thing to do. Publishers do pretend that their readers cannot read
music, but (a) I think that more people than that can read music;
and (b) that even more could read if publishers accepted to include
musical examples... And with the technical means of today, musical
examples should not dramatically increase the price of a book.<br>
<br>
In short, besides the interest of being more informed about a piece,
I thing that there is the interest of being made able to use the
information (memory) already available. <br>
<br>
Nicolas Meeùs<br>
Université Paris-Sorbonne<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">Le 2/11/2012 03:44, Matthew Heap a
écrit :<br>
</div>
<blockquote
cite="mid:9D995354-7944-46E2-8AA3-3F6F00D0F0CC@gmail.com"
type="cite">
<div><span class="Apple-style-span"
style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26,
0.296875); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227,
0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180,
0.230469); ">Just a quick word on the "ideal listener" idea -
I fully acknowledge that no such person exists (perhaps it
would be more accurate to write "the idealized listener"...)
but I find it a useful construct to help me organize material
into two compartments: analysis that can be heard, and
analysis that can't. To use the same example, this "idealized
listener" could theoretically hear the individual registral
openings in the Berio. They could not hear the way that Berio
takes this idea and elongates it on several levels throughout
the movement, simply because it happens over such a long
period of time in what can be a fairly dense piece. Both of
these analytical aspects are interesting and deserve space in
a theory paper, but I think it might help a non-theorist
reader to separate them so that they know what they can
actually listen for, and what they can't but may (hopefully)
find interesting anyway as a way of looking into the
compositional process.</span></div>
<div><span class="Apple-style-span"
style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26,
0.292969); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227,
0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180,
0.230469);"><br>
</span></div>
<div><span class="Apple-style-span"
style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26,
0.292969); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227,
0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180,
0.230469);">I mostly agree with Nicolas - the more informed
you are about the piece, the better your listening experience
will be. On the other hand, I think that a more experiential
analysis can tell us a lot about what is really
communicated...as I said, I'm not sure that this is an
either/or situation.<br>
</span></div>
<div><span class="Apple-style-span"
style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26,
0.292969); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227,
0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180,
0.230469);"><br>
</span></div>
<div><span class="Apple-style-span"
style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26,
0.292969); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227,
0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180,
0.230469);">Matthew Heap</span></div>
<div><span class="Apple-style-span"
style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26,
0.296875); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227,
0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180,
0.230469); ">American University</span></div>
<div><span class="Apple-style-span"
style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26,
0.296875); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227,
0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180,
0.230469); "><br>
</span></div>
<div><span class="Apple-style-span"
style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26,
0.296875); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227,
0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180,
0.230469); ">Sent from my iPad</span></div>
<br>
</blockquote>
<br>
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