Metric Gesture as a Topic in <i>Le Nozze di Figaro</i> and <i>Don Giovanni</i>

Allanbrook, Wye Jamison

doi:10.1093/mq/lxvii.1.94

Cited by 2 publications

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“…One instance is the transference of the sacred learned style (in the form of the slow, processional alla breve ) to evoke solemn passion in Mozart’s secular works. She provides two examples: in the string quartet K. 387 the alla breve gesture, in particular its metric attributes, has been transferred from the ecclesiastical domain into the world of the galant (Allanbrook, 1981); and, in Don Giovanni , Donna Anna “adopts the white notes alla breve gesture for an aria in a grand, rather archaic idiom” in which “the two slow half-note beats of near equal accent in the alla breve choreograph a dignified, but passionate, march”. Allanbrook’s use of the term gesture is metonymic: the metric qualities of the alla breve are an attribute of the sacred learned style .…”

Section: Gestures In Music Writingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Characterising musical gestures

Ben-Tal

2012

Musicae Scientiae

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Despite the widespread use of the term gesture in writings about music, the term is not defined in most musical dictionaries. Moreover, as this paper shows, the term is employed by different writers in a wide variety of ways. One common use of the term refers to sonic instances that are close analogies of physical gestures. These could be termed expressive unit gestures which, like physical gestures, are perceived as a short, unified, expressive events. To enable a more detailed study of these, this paper outlines a systematic approach to their description in the hope that these will open possibilities for a more detailed study of this aspect of musical gestures. The HamNoSys notation was developed for the systematic description of sign language. Gestures of sign language are notated through a systematic profiling of the actions involved (hand shapes, movement types, etc.). By analogy a musical gesture can be described through its auditory properties such as accent patterns, pitch contour, register, and so forth. This paper suggests that studying these expressive unit gestures offers a way of linking the dynamics of the music with expressive potential and can, therefore, contribute to an experiential account of music; could lead to new methods of investigating listeners engagement with music; and could potentially offer new ideas in the field of music information retrieval.

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Section: Gestures In Music Writingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Characterising musical gestures

Ben-Tal

2012

Musicae Scientiae

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The Contredanse, Classical Finales, and Caplin’s Formal Functions

Neumeyer

2006

MTO

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Formal designs employing 2, 4, 8, and 16 measure units were basic to eighteenth-century music for dancing. Although the menuet was more flexible, the contredanse was firmly rooted in this “quadratic syntax.” Style statistics, expressed in William Caplin’s terms for formal functions, were derived from music in dance manuals held by the Library of Congress and reproduced on its American Memory website in order to provide the background for analyses of movements from Mozart and Haydn concert music. The style information and analyses, taken together, suggest that Caplin’s distinction between “tight-knit” and “loose” principles of construction may have a source in the active and expressive opposition of music for dancing and (instrumental) music for listening.

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Metric Gesture as a Topic in Le Nozze di Figaro and Don Giovanni

Cited by 2 publications

References 0 publications

Characterising musical gestures

Characterising musical gestures

The Contredanse, Classical Finales, and Caplin’s Formal Functions

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