Performative Analysis

This book proposes a new model for understanding the musical work, which includes interpretation -- both analysis- and performance-based -- as an integral component. Jeffrey Swinkin explores the important role that performance plays in the understanding of a work, as well as the performative nature of musical analysis itself (especially Schenkerian analysis), which he views as a mode of interpretation. When music analysis is viewed in this way, it is no longer a realm of abstract ideas that performance must attempt, usually futilely, to convey; rather, it is eminently applicable to performance, grounded in the same sorts of tangible experiences that performers are necessarily concerned to project. This study, then, exploits the potential for analysis and performance to share common ground, to partake of an equitable, fruitful relationship. The first three chapters theorize this stance; the last three apply it to works by Chopin, Beethoven, and Schumann. Jeffrey Swinkin is assistant professor of music theory at University of Oklahoma and has published on musical topics as diverse as variation form, Beethoven, the philosophy of music, and pedagogy.