Dissertation Index
Author: Walker, Jonathan Title: The Work-Concept in Music and Musicology: A Philosophical Study." (provisional title) Queen's University Belfast, School of Music, 1996 Institution: Queen's University Belfast Begun: October 1992 Completed: September 1996 Abstract: This thesis concerns the complex of ontological, epistemological, aesthetic, and methodological issues raised by the concept of the musical work, as it arises both within musical practice, and within musicological discourse. The first two chapters provide the main philosophical substance of the thesis: a critique of existing treatments of these issues, and the construction of an alternative approach. The second pair of chapters employs the foregoing philosophical material in a critical study of various issues central to music theory, the cognitive psychology of music, and the New Musicology. The final pair of chapters applies some of my conclusions in an analytic and interpretative study of a small corpus of Beethoven's middle-period works. Keywords: ontology, aesthetics, Platonism, Kant, Beethoven, Schenker, Forte, tuning (just intonation), cognitive psychology, post-modernism TOC: 1. Ontology of the Musical Work A Critique of Musical Platonism Epistemological problems arising from Musical Platonism An Extensional Definition of the Work-Concept The Institutional Context of the Work-Concept 2. Aesthetics of the Musical Work Music and Kant's Third Critique Aesthetic Properties as Prima Facie Sources of Value 3. The Autonomy of the Musical Work Organic Unity in Music Analysis Tuning, Structure and Schenker's Ursatz The Perception of Form and the Cognitive "Unconscious" 4. The Heteronomy of the Musical Work Post-Modern Resistance to the Work-Concept The Musical Work as Text Works and Canonicity 5. Beethoven's Heroic Period: Unity of Works and Oeuvre A formal feature of Beethoven's Heroic period: Mediant relationships and middle-ground arpeggiation Extremes: Mediants and enharmonic spirals The String Quintet, Op.29: I - vi - IV The Sonata for Piano and Violin, Op.96: I - bVI - bbIV(III) The Piano Trio, Op.97: I - vi - IV - bII 6. The Works and World of Beethoven's Heldendämmerung. The politics of Beethoven's "Heroic" Period: From the Joseph II Cantata to the Ninth Symphony The 1805 version of Fidelio and the Austerlitz Campaign The Fifth Piano Concerto and the Wagram Campaign The 1814 version of Fidelio and the Congress of Vienna Contact: Apt.20 Quarry Court, Bridge Road, Helen's Bay, Co. Down, Northern Ireland, U.K. Voice: 44-1232-718488 E-mail: kollos@cavehill.dnet.co.uk Web URL: http://www.music.qub.ac.uk/~walker |