Work analysis
The network analysis is a musicological discipline , compositions understand intellectually. For this purpose, the work is examined for certain criteria. The definition of form models and the development of theoretical systems should help to understand a work.
Definition of terms
Work analysis means the primarily intellectual (weighing, counting, comparative, classifying, explanatory and illuminating) approach to a musical work. The basis for an analysis is usually the musical text, more rarely (and then more pedagogically motivated) a "hearing analysis".
Following the original meaning of the word analysis , a work analysis usually also means breaking up the composition into larger or smaller sections. This includes the uncovering of its structures and their components, which can reach down to the level of the smallest elements, motifs . In the 20th century at the latest, however, the demand was made on analyzes to reassemble what has been dismembered, to uncover relationships, developments and contexts of meaning, to name the shapes and forms in a musical work and to explain their effect.
In this respect, if work analysis can tend to be intrinsic to the work, a perspective that goes beyond the individual work is usually required. The individuality of a composition can often be viewed against the background of conventions of the genre or established form models, as described in the theory of forms . Do such models not exist, e.g. B. in advanced New Music, work analysis (cum grano salis) takes place without any preconditions. But even then, relics of traditions, echoes of traditional models and conventions can be discovered and incorporated into the analytical knowledge process.
Methods and goals of work analysis
The tools for the work analysis are partly provided by music theory ( harmony , counterpoint , form theory ); partly from historical and systematic musicology . Knowledge of historical systems of theory can enrich the analytical approach. In the case of text-based music in particular, there is also overlap with neighboring disciplines in cultural studies.
Analysis should not be misunderstood as verbalising musical text. Even the encryption of a musical text using the systems of harmony alone is not yet an act of analysis. Even the uncovering of “layers” in the sense of Heinrich Schenker's teaching , although developed specifically for the representation of contexts, could degenerate into a mere transfer of musical text into a cipher scheme if used unreflectively.
The results of a musical analysis are just as dependent on the analysis tools used as on the knowledge of the person who operates them. Work analyzes were often used to exemplify the rules of sentence theory. For this purpose, as early as 1477, Johannes Tinctoris examined contemporary works in a counterpoint treatise ( Liber de arte contrapuncti ). In the 19th century, analyzes (partly clearly influenced by the aesthetics of the content) were used to interpret the work aimed at the concert audience. A well-known example of this is ETA Hoffmann's review of Beethoven's 5th Symphony. In the 20th century, work analysis became a central discipline in composition training, for example in Arnold Schönberg's lessons. Because music education in general music education increasingly focused on the musical work of art after 1945 , it became essential for music teachers to be capable of independent work analysis.
After all, an analytical-reflective approach in the sense of getting to know a score precisely is a prerequisite for a responsible interpretation of a work by performing artists. Even memorizing the music text requires a mental breakdown and assembly.
Since the middle of the 20th century, music theorists in Germany, above all Diether de la Motte and Clemens Kühn , have been trying to systematize the methods of work analysis and develop concepts for teaching this discipline within music education. The lay-oriented processing of musical works through appropriate forms of work analysis is a research area within music education.
literature
Many form theories deal, implicitly or explicitly, with the field of work analysis. Specific literature:
- Hermann Beck: Methods of work analysis in music history and the present . Wilhelmshaven 1974.
- Diether de la Motte : Musical analysis . Kassel 7th edition 2002.
- Siegmund Helms et al .: Work analysis in examples . Regensburg 1986
- Clemens Kühn : Learning to analyze . Kassel 1993.
- Oliver Schwab-Felisch, Helga de la Motte-Haber (ed.): Music theory . Handbook of Systematic Musicology Volume 2. Laaber-Verlag, Laaber 2004, ISBN 3-89007-563-0
- Michael Märker, Lothar Schmidt (Ed.): Music aesthetics and analysis. Festschrift Wilhelm Seidel . Laaber-Verlag, Laaber 2002, ISBN 3-89007-507-X
- Gernot Gruber (Ed.): On the history of musical analysis . Laaber-Verlag, Laaber 1996, ISBN 3-89007-316-6
- Bernd Redmann: Draft of a theory and methodology of music analysis . Laaber-Verlag, Laaber 2002, ISBN 3-89007-519-3
Individual evidence
- ↑ cf. Gerold W. Gruber, article "Analysis" in Friedrich Blume (ed.), The music in history and present , Kassel and Stuttgart 1994, part vol. 1, column 579 ff.
- ↑ Christoph Richter, analysis for laypeople in: Diergarten, Holtmeier, Leigh and Metzner (eds.): Music and their theories , Dresden 2010, p. 55ff.