Mathis Lussy's "Traité de l'expression musicale" as a Window into Performance Practice

Abstract

In his Traite de l'expression musicale of 1874, Mathis Lussy proposes that musical expression is implicit in the musical surface and therefore that sensitive performers respond to the same surface in the same manner. Through an analysis of the opening song of Schumann's Frauenliebe und -leben based on Lussy's theory, this paper explores Lussy's proposition. Following the analysis, twelve recordings of this song made over the past 45 years are compared. Lussy's proposition is correct with respect to variations of tempo. However, this same comparison reveals that two very different interpretive models of this song exist when one considers how these variations of tempo aid in the projection of the formal structure. There would appear to be a correlation between a poetic model and recordings from the 1940s and 1950s, and between a prosaic model and recordings from the 1970s. 45[L]es artistes manifestent des expressions identiques sans autres differences que celles qui resultent de leur delicatesse de sentiment, de leur virtuosite plus ou moins grande (Lussy, Traitd, 1-2). expressiv response to a particular ev nt. Whether a perrmer slows minutely or excessively to an even is of critical portance to how a performance integrat s local details with eir role in shaping the larger musi al structure. To my seni ility, it i ssen ial at the comm response to individual ents be carefully c ntrolled so that the structure is clearly ticulated. This is suggested b Lussy's appeal that an exe siv eb e balanced by a proportionate xpressive flow. e interpretative model presented by Schumann and Miller dicate that there may be more than one wa whereby this alance i successfully accomplished. This content downloaded from 207.46.13.25 on Mon, 12 Sep 2016 04:33:42 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms