Bengt Edlund Bücher

The book explores diverse methods and concepts in music analysis, addressing topics such as musical implications, tonal analysis, and generative theory. It delves into themes of ambiguity and similarity, alongside examining key criteria relevant to plagiarism lawsuits. Additionally, it poses provocative questions about the relationship between a composer's sexual orientation and their musical output, offering critical insights into both technical and interpretive aspects of music.

In what ways can analytic reection be of avail when engaging in music as a musician? What restrictions of the interpreter’s freedom do musical scores impose? Which licences do musicians in fact allow themselves? Can hierarchical tonal analysis really guide musicians towards artistically rewarding interpretations? Or is perhaps a painstaking and sensitive study of the musical details, revealing continuous processes, a more productive path to telling performances? roughout the book, the views and discussions are amplied by music examples.

During the past fifty years Schenkerian theory has been adopted as the main method for analysing tonal music. This book questions the value of Schenker’s «tonal analysis» for musical description and interpretation, and discusses its relations to «generative» theory and «implicational» analysis – taking into account its links with linguistic syntax and the perception of tonal closure. It is observed how auxiliary theoretical concepts transform the music so as to pave the way for preordained tonal structures. Alternative readings of the music examples are provided.

The first study of this volume looks for reminiscences of Dies Irae in Chopin’s works. A great number of allusions and affinities are found in the preludes as well as in Chopin’s output. The study also yields insights into Chopin’s composition method. These intertextual findings are used in an attempt to establish the extra-musical content of the Second Ballade. Five preludes – A minor, E minor, B minor, A major and C minor – are closely examined, using diverse analytical approaches. A primary concern is to critically assess previous readings, and Schenkerian ones in particular. An analysis of the initial right-hand passage of the F-minor étude from Méthode brings up matters of idiomatic and ontology.