On Performing Chopin’s Barcarolle
نویسنده
چکیده
This article focuses on the author’s experience relating musical analysis to performance issues in Chopin’s Barcarolle for piano. Central to the inquiry is an integrated perspective in which performance and analysis continually inform each other, with tangible results. Challenges to performance include the similarity and repetitiveness of textures and sectional characters over a long musical expanse; a succession of tightly packed, highly charged subsections toward the end; and significant structural and motivic events to be associated over spans of time. Analytic approaches reveal long-range motivic and pitch-class connections, directing the author’s attention to ways of performing significant events. A suggestive programmatic image drawn from personal experience aids in organizing distinctions of metric emphasis, texture, and gesture for a large portion of the piece. An examination of structural phrase-types in relation to conceptions of form helps to strategize the pacing of the final sections, leading to an unconventional performance decision. Received October 2013
منابع مشابه
Exploring the perceptual effects of performers’ interpretations
Background in performance analysis and perception. Empirical studies of performance attributes such as tempo variations, dynamics (Palmer, 1989; Repp, 1997, 1999) and even visual gestures (Vines et al., 2006) posit that structural emphases can be measured from these aural and visual streams. Recording continuous perceptual responses from audience judges on tasks such as shaping perceived phrasi...
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