Classical Forms & Performance

This course aims to examine the relationship between different kinds of analysis and the performance of large classical forms. Through a combination of secondary reading, score analysis and performance workshops we will tackle questions regarding bar structure and phrasing, tonal-harmonic relations and the musical narrative, the connection between texture and character as well as dramatic contrast and the evolution of the motivic material in the sonata and variations forms. Developing a heightened awareness of the inner forces in music and arguing that a deep reading of a musical work, as individualistic that reading may be, has to be rooted in a full grammatical understanding of the score.