Integrating Musical Topics and Rhetorical Figures into the Analysis of Musical Form

Result code in IS VaVaI

<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F61988987%3A17500%2F25%3AA2603DH6" target="_blank" >RIV/61988987:17500/25:A2603DH6 - isvavai.cz</a>

Result on the web

<a href="https://iseacv.gva.es/documents/162972573/396396118/harma2025_book_indexat-2.pdf/fca05e05-a8ef-6f51-2bd7-9231caf6e832?t=1758099481151" target="_blank" >https://iseacv.gva.es/documents/162972573/396396118/harma2025_book_indexat-2.pdf/fca05e05-a8ef-6f51-2bd7-9231caf6e832?t=1758099481151</a>

DOI - Digital Object Identifier

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Result language

angličtina

Original language name

Integrating Musical Topics and Rhetorical Figures into the Analysis of Musical Form

Original language description

Topic theory has uncovered an extensive thesaurus of characteristic musical topoi (hunt, military, pastoral, storm, learned style, singing style, sensitive style etc.), which appear widely in the instrumental (as well as vocal) music of the eighteenth century (and beyond). This thesaurus should be consulted by any musician or listener who aspires for stylistic competence appropriate to the repertoire at hand. Given the association of topics with different social contexts and cultural practices, topics are highly capable of linking seemingly abstract instrumental music with a rich network of cultural associations (hunting music, for example, is associated with masculinity, chivalry, adventure, the outdoors, and the like). Musical-rhetorical figures belong a somewhat obscure chapter of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century music theory. With their Latin and Greek names, competing classifications, conflicting definitions and roots in classical rhetoric (once commonly taught at schools, but now largely forgotten), they often seem nebulous and hardly fit for purpose. However, when used judiciously, they can illuminate important rhetorical aspects of music, which often features rhetorical questions (interrogatio), exclamations (exclamatio), interruptions (abruptio), hesitations (dubitatio), expressive chromaticism (pathopoeia), ascending/descending/circular motion (anabasis/catabasis/circulatio), sighs (suspiratio) and other rhetorical features which amplify music’s expressive power. The aim of this paper is to show how these approaches can be integrated into the conventional framework of a Caplinian formal analysis and applied to eighteenth-century instrumental music. I will explore how musical topics and rhetorical figures are used to differentiate individual parts of common formal designs (such as sonata form or rondo), which thus become transformed from abstract schemata into expressive or even dramatic trajectories.

Czech name

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Czech description

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Type

D - Article in proceedings

CEP classification

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OECD FORD branch

60403 - Performing arts studies (Musicology, Theater science, Dramaturgy)

Project

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Continuities

I - Institucionalni podpora na dlouhodoby koncepcni rozvoj vyzkumne organizace

Publication year

2025

Confidentiality

S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů

Article name in the collection

Book of Abstracts of the HarMA Seminar Event

ISBN

978-84-482-7081-0

ISSN

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e-ISSN

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Number of pages

4

Pages from-to

33-36

Publisher name

Institut Superior d’Ensenyances Artístiques de la Comunitat Valenciana

Place of publication

València

Event location

València

Event date

Apr 14, 2025

Type of event by nationality

EUR - Evropská akce

UT code for WoS article

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