Musical Analyses and Musical Exegesis: The Shepherd's Melody in Richard Wagner's Tristan and Isolde (Eastman Studies in Music)

The field of musicology has in recent decades branched out to incorporate methods from a wide range of other fields. But, when scholars examine a musical work, to what extent should they emphasize immanent (purely internal) features, and to what extent historical, cultural, psychological, or aesthetic networks of meanings associated with those features? Finally, what specific analytical method should be chosen, given that various methods can lead to seemingly incompatible results? Jean-Jacques Nattiez, a renowned figure in music theory, musicology, and ethnomusicology, here examines numerous contending approaches that have been applied to the English-horn melody heard in Wagner's Tristan and Isolde . His aim is to offer thereby a methodological guide and compendium that will allow specialists and students alike to navigate the multiplicity of theoretical orientations in musicology. Analytical models proposed by Heinrich Schenker, Nicolas Ruwet, Leonard B. Meyer, Fred Lerdahl, and other notable figures in the field of music analysis are discussed. Some of the analytical sketches by these scholars were previously unpublished and are presented to the public for the first time in the present book. The author also considers insights from the fields of psychology and psychoanalysis. An examination of Wagner's wide-ranging musical sources (Venetian gondolier songs and Swiss shepherd songs) leads to acutely relevant passages in writings by Rousseau, Goethe, and Schopenhauer. The book culminates in Nattiez's own interpretation of the relationship between vocal and instrumental music in Tristan and Isolde . Jean-Jacques Nattiez is professor emeritus of musicology at the Université de Montréal. Table of Contents Foreword by Pierre Boulez Preface Introduction: The English Horn Solo, My Approach, and Models of Analysis and Musical Meaning PART I: IMMANENT ANALYSIS OF THE ENGLISH HORN SOLO'S MUSICAL STRUCTURES Linear Analyses Formenlehre Analyses Paradigmatic Analyses PART II: ESTHETIC ANALYSIS Performances as Initial Esthesic Analyses Esthesic Analysis of the Solo's Immanent Structures Esthesic Analysis of the Solo's Semantic Associations PART III: POIETIC ANALYSIS Musical Sources for the Solo The Solo's Composition: Sketches and the Creative Process PART IV: HERMENEUTICS The Shepherd's Melody at Risk of Psychoanalysis The Shepherd's Melody and the English Horn in Tristan "This Shepherd's Metaphysical Melody" Conclusion: The Validity of Structural Analyses and Interpretations Bibliography Index Here translated for the first time, Jean-Jacques Nattiez's widely hailed comparative guide to the techniques of music analysis focuses on a single vivid passage from Wagner's Tristan and Isolde.The field of musicology has in recent decades branched out to incorporate methods from a wide range of other fields. But, when scholars examine a musical work, to what extent should they emphasize immanent (purely internal) features, and to what extent historical, cultural, psychological, or aesthetic networks of meanings associated with those features? Finally, what specific analytical method should be chosen, given that various methods can lead to seemingly incompatible results? Jean-Jacques Nattiez, a renowned figure in music theory, musicology, and ethnomusicology, here examines numerous contending approaches that have been applied to the English-horn melody heard in Wagner's Tristan and Isolde. His aim is to offer thereby a methodological guide and compendium that will allow specialists and students alike to navigate the multiplicity of theoretical orientations in musicology.Analytical models proposed by Heinrich Schenker, Nicolas Ruwet, Leonard B. Meyer, Fred Lerdahl, and other notable figures in the field of music analysis are discussed. Some of the analytical sketches by these scholars were previously unpublished and are presented to the public for the first time in the present book. The author also considers insights from the fields of psychology and psychoanalysis. An examination of Wagner's wide-ranging musical sources (Venetian gondolier songs and Swiss shepherd songs) leads to acutely relevant passages in writings by Rousseau, Goethe, and Schopenhauer. The book culminates in Nattiez's own interpretation of the relationship between vocal and instrumental music in Tristan and Isolde. Jean-Jacques Nattiez is professor emeritus of musicology at the Université de Montréal. English summary: This volume examines the different analytical, historical, and hermeneutic approaches to the shepherds melody in Wagners Tristan and Isolde as methodological guide that will allow specialists and students to find their way through the various current orientations of musicology. The study opens in particular onto an original interpretation of the relationship between vocal and instrumental music. French description: La musicologie est entree dans une periode d'eclatement. Pour rendre compte des oeuvres et des styles, le chercheur doit-il mettre l'accent sur leurs structures ou sur les reseaux de significations de tous ordres qui s'y rattachent: historiques, culturelles, psychologiques, esthetiques, etc.? Et pour chacun de ces angles d'attaque, quelle methode d'analyse choisir et quel paradigme explicatif privilegier, alors qu'ils conduisent souvent a des resultats differents, voire concurrents? En examinant les diverses approches analytiques, historiques et hermeneutiques appliquees a la melodie du berger entendue dans le Tristan et Isolde de Wagner, l'auteur propose un guide methodologique qui permettra tant aux specialistes qu'aux etudiants de se reperer dans la proliferation des diverses orientations de la musicologie. Les modeles de Schenker, Ruwet, Meyer et Lerdahl sont discutes. Les esquisses inedites de cette musique sont ici publiees pour la premiere fois. Les investigations de la psychologie experimentale et de la psychanalyse sont presentees. L'examen des sources musicales (les chants de gondoliers de Venise et les chants de bergers helvetiques) entraine le lecteur du cote de Rousseau, de Goethe et surtout de Schopenhauer. Le livre debouche sur une interpretation originale des rapports entre musique vocale et musique instrumentale a travers Tristan. "The field of musicology has in recent decades branched out to incorporate methods from a wide range of other fields. But, when scholars examine a musical work, to what extent should they emphasize immanent (purely internal) features, and to what extent historical, cultural, psychological, or aesthetic networks of meanings associated with those features? Finally, what specific analytical method should be chosen, given that various methods can lead to seemingly incompatible results? Jean-Jacques Nattiez, a renowned figure in music theory, musicology, and ethnomusicology, here examines numerous contending approaches that have been applied to the English-horn melody heard in Wagner's Tristan and Isolde. His aim is to offer thereby a methodological guide and compendium that will allow specialists and students alike to navigate the multiplicity of theoretical orientations in musicology. Analytical models proposed by Heinrich Schenker, Nicolas Ruwet, Leonard B. Meyer, Fred Lerdahl, and other notable figures in the field of music analysis are discussed. Some of the analytical sketches by these scholars were previously unpublished and are presented to the public for the first time in the present book. The author also considers insights from the fields of psychology and psychoanalysis. An examination of Wagner's wide-ranging musical sources (Venetian gondolier songs and Swiss shepherd songs) leads to acutely relevant passages in writings by Rousseau, Goethe, and Schopenhauer. The book culminates in Nattiez's own interpretation of the relationship between vocal and instrumental music in Tristan and Isolde. Jean-Jacques Nattiez is professor emeritus of musicology at the Université de Montréal"-- Provided by publisher