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Focusing on the period of most intense metric experimentation in the work of both Haydn and Mozart, author Danuta Mirka presents here a systematic discussion of the composers' metric strategies. Combining historical music theory with the cognitive study of music, Mirka's award-winning book sheds new light on this repertoire and redefines the role of meter and rhythm in Classical music.
List of contents
- Introduction
- Note on Terminology, Language, and Musical Examples
- Chapter 1. Musical Meter between Composition and Perception
- 1.1. The Concept of Meter in the Late Eighteenth Century
- 1.2. Revival of the Hierarchical Concept of Meter in the Twentieth Century
- 1.3. Toward a Dynamic Model of Meter
- 1.4. Borrowing from a Different Model
- Chapter 2. Finding Meter
- 2.1. Statistical Parameters
- 2.2. Harmony
- 2.3. Streaming and the Role of Bass
- 2.4. Cadence (Structural Accent)
- Chapter 3. Sustaining Meter -- Challenging Meter
- 3.1. Metrum and Regularity of Beats
- 3.2. Missing Beats
- 3.3. General Pauses
- 3.4. Fermatas
- 3.5. Syncopations
- Chapter 4. Changing Meter I: Change of Period
- 4.1. Imbroglio
- 4.2. Submetrical Dissonance
- 4.3. Hemiola
- Chapter 5. Changing Meter II: Change of Phase
- 5.1. Chains of Rhythmical Dissonances
- 5.2. Other Parameters in Displacement Dissonances
- 5.3. Imitation
- 5.4. Ligaturae, Retardation, Anticipation
- 5.5. Syncopated Accompaniment
- 5.6. Remark on Subliminal Dissonances
- Chapter 6. Changing Meter III: Change of Tactus
- 6.1. Changes of Taktteile in Compound Meters
- 6.2. Changes of Taktteile in Double Measures
- 6.3. Perceptual Factors
- 6.4. Taktteile and the Tactus
- Chapter 7. Analyses of Long-Range Metrical Strategies
- Haydn, String Quartet in C major, Op. 50 No. 2, First Movement
- Haydn, String Quartet in F minor, Op. 55 No. 2, Finale
- Chapter 8. Wit, Comedy and Metric Manipulations in Haydn and Mozart's Personal Styles
- 8.1. Haydn
- 8.2. Mozart
- 8.3. Haydn's Earlier and Later String Quartets
- 8.4. Inconclusive Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index of Compositions by Haydn and Mozart
- General Index
About the author
Danuta Mirka is Reader in Music at the University of Southampton. She is the author of of The Sonoristic Structuralism of Krzysztof Penderecki and coeditor, with Kofi Agawu, of Communication in Early Music.
Summary
Focusing on the period of most intense metric experimentation in the work of both Haydn and Mozart, author Danuta Mirka presents here a systematic discussion of the composers' metric strategies. Combining historical music theory with the cognitive study of music, Mirka's award-winning book sheds new light on this repertoire and redefines the role of meter and rhythm in Classical music.
Additional text
A superb book. Through detailed and sensitive re-hearings of a range of chamber music by Haydn and Mozart, Danuta Mirka persuades us how the syntactic manipulation of meter contributes to the sound of classical style as much as more familiar harmonic or formal conventions. What I find particularly remarkable about this study is the brilliant way the author is able to gain analytic traction using both historical music theory sources as well as insights drawn from contemporary cognitive psychology. It is a model for the kind of synthetic analysis so sorely needed in the field of music theory today.
