Music in Profile

Abstract

Abstract This book reflects the increasing significance of musical performance studies in recent decades. Originally published as separate essays over thirty years, the twelve chapters have been refashioned as a monograph which is both scholarly in nature and intensely personal, building on the author’s extensive musical experience, most notably as a pianist. Hence the primary focus on piano music by Chopin, Schubert, Liszt, Brahms and Rachmaninoff. The book’s cross-cutting themes nevertheless apply to diverse performance idioms and domains. Such themes include: performance as a creative practice; performative agency and contingency; sense-making and decision-making in performance; ‘feeling’ and embodiment in performance; mental representation on the part of performers; knowledge and understanding in ‘informed performance’; intuition in performance; the emergent musical work; musical structure as shape; musical narrative as constructed through performance; the projection of identity and individuality in performance; the poverty and fecundity of musical notation; the limits and powers of verbal discourse in relation to performance; eclecticism and inclusivity in studying performance; evaluation and judgement of performance; and the experience of listening to performance. By exploring these themes in complementary ways, the book offers broad insights into musical ontology, epistemology and semantics while demonstrating various methodologies now used to study performance. Among other things, it highlights the powerful effects that experiencing music in performance can have on those who take part in it, in any capacity. There are many practical insights too. The volume has four sections, focusing on ‘performance and performance studies’, historical performance, analysis and performance, and artistic research. Case studies of romantic masterpieces for the piano feature throughout.