Hypermetric Manipulations in Haydn and Mozart

Abstract

This book presents a systematic discussion of hypermeter and phrase structure in eighteenth-century music. It combines perspectives from historical and modern music theory with insights from the cognitive study of music and introduces a dynamic model of hypermeter that allows the analyst to trace the effect of hypermetric manipulations in real time. This model is applied in analyses of string chamber music by Haydn and Mozart. The analyses shed a new light upon this celebrated musical repertory, but the aim of this book goes far beyond an analytical survey of specific compositions. Rather, it is to give a comprehensive account of the ways in which phrase structure and hypermeter were described by eighteenth-century music theorists, conceived by eighteenth-century composers, and perceived by eighteenth-century listeners.