Wordless Rhetoric

Mark Evan Bonds

Published by Harvard University Press 1991

Wordless Rhetoric

Musical Form and the Metaphor of the Oration

Mark Evan Bonds

Volume 4 in the series Studies in the History of Music

https://doi.org/10.4159/harvard.9780674733411

Overview
Contents

About this book

Although “form” is one of the most commonly used terms in music interpretation, it remains one of the most ambiguous. This penetrating study explores evolving ideas of musical form from a historical perspective and sheds new light on current conceptualizations of music.

Mark Evan Bonds examines the image—dominant among eighteenth-century composers and analysts—of music as a language, a kind of wordless discourse, which could move audiences. In the Baroque and Classical periods an instrumental composition was viewed as analogous to an oration, its form the intelligible elaboration of a central thematic idea. The predominant emphasis, therefore, was on the perspective of the listener. This rhetorical metaphor is shown giving way in the nineteenth century to the idea of a musical work as an organic entity, an image that emphasizes the autonomy of the work. The listener, in effect, becomes merely an interested third party.

In his account of these changing perspectives, Bonds draws on the writing of a broad range of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century theorists. His analyses focus on specific sonata form movements by Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven and are informed by the theoretical premises that characterize the composers’ own times. In a final synthesis, the eighteenth-century rhetorical model—with its focus on the structural function of musical ideas and the role of the listener—emerges as a forerunner of today’s listener-oriented and plot theories about musical form.

In Wordless Rhetoric, Bonds makes fruitful use of literary theory to develop his innovative evaluation of musical form. This book will be invaluable to anyone who studies music or seeks to understand music analysis.

Author information

BondsMark Evan:

Mark Evan Bonds is Professor of Music at the University of North Carolina.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Acknowledgments Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	vii
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
Abbreviations Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	xii
INTRODUCTION. Musical Form and Metaphor Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
CHAPTER 1. The Paradox of Musical Form Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	13
CHAPTER 2. Rhetoric and the Concept of Musical Form in the Eighteenth Century Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	53
CHAPTER 3. Continuity and Change in Later Metaphors of Form Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	132
CHAPTER 4. Rhetoric and the Autonomy of Instrumental Music Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	162
CHAPTER 5. Rhetoric and the Role of the Listener in the Analysis of Large-Scale Form Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	181
Originals of Quotations Given in Translation Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	207
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	231

(Deutsch)

Language: English
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Edition: Reprint 2013
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Main content: 237
Illustrations
- Other: 24 line illustrations
Keywords: Musical form.; Music -- Philosophy and aesthetics.

eBook

Published: October 1, 2013
ISBN: 9780674733411

Hardcover

Published: December 11, 2013
ISBN: 9780674733404