Musical Work Of Art Research Articles

The book of the musical artwork: an interpretation of the musical theories of Heinrich Schenker

This volume offers translated material from the Schenker literature and argues for the acoustical foundations of Schenker's theory of music. It gives a concise tabulation of elements of his theory, and provides annotated analytic sketches.

Harmony and logos: The origin of the musical work of art

(1983). Harmony and logos: The origin of the musical work of art. Journal of Musicological Research: Vol. 4, No. 3-4, pp. 315-330.

ANTON BRUCKNER AND THE PROCESS OF MUSICAL CREATION

T HE SCIENCE of musical xsthetics has hitherto devoted but little attention to the question of the origin of the musical artwork. One could almost say that the concern of this science is always with the finished work-that the investigation of the mysterious process of the creation of that work is avoided. It is no wonder, then, that the understanding of a musical art-work is much more difficult to obtain than that of a work of literature. The definitive edition of a poet's work generally contains in the last volumes an assembly of the fragments, drafts, and sketches, relating to the various completed works. But in the editions of the complete works of the great composers it is only rarely that one finds such glimpses into the workshop of the musician. And yet such additions to the collections of the finished works are altogether necessary to the understanding of the artist's personality. For this reason it is cause for congratulation that in the new edition of the Complete Works of Anton Bruckner ' the sketches and drafts of the symphonies have been included in great number, so that one can follow the development of the various musical ideas and the growth of the musical architecture.

The Music of the Future: A Phantasy

WILL IT EVER BE POSSIBLE for the musical composer to fix his art product by his own unaided efforts in an objectively independent, unalterable form, just as the painter produces his painting? In the present state of the art, the transmission of a musical work is dependent largely upon recurring reproduction or recreation of a composition, very often by executants other than the composer. Virtuoso soloists, ensemble players, orchestra players, choral singers are needed by the composer of music (so far as he is not himself the performer). The painter needs no such aids. The painter with the aid of pigments, the sculptor with a more or less plastic material, embodies his ideas in objective form, which needs only the action of light to transmit a sense impression to the beholder. Can the musician ever be provided with an analogous method of carrying his sound conceptions to the ears of auditors? Modern electrical technique seems to hold out a promise of some such process. The sound film and the loud speaker are at any rate able to reproduce by purely mechanical means a very complicated acoustic product always in the same way and with the same sense impression for the hearer. If the musician could be enabled to manipulate his sound effects as the painter handles his pigments, if he could mix his tones and overtones, his tone-colors and tone-shadings in infinite variety without the aid of the artificial sound producers which we now call musical instruments, and if finally he could fix the resulting complicated sound curve upon a lasting medium like the sound film, capable of being acoustically reproduced at will with the aid of electric apparatus, he will have reached the autonomy and independence of the painter. He will have been brought into direct contact with his hearer as the painter is with his beholder. The turning on of the electric current will do for the musical work of art what the