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The Key to Beethoven: Connecting Tonality and Meaning in His Music (The North American Beethoven Series) - Softcover
Building on the remarkable correlation between key and tonal affect found in his vocal music, this book establishes an understanding of the way in which Beethoven uses tonality affectively.
Following an Introduction that outlines a justification for revisiting the concept of meaning in Beethoven's music, Chapter One assembles the historical case for Beethoven's knowledge of key characteristics, examining materials with which he was familiar, his own views, and various items of anecdotal evidence. The second chapter presents a survey of the keys employed by Beethoven, using evidence from contemporary writers, theorists, composers, and Beethoven's own works to establish congruency of affective meaning. Chapters Three to Five identify the significant body of empirical evidence that connects tonality and meaning in an examination of the solo songs, revealing the strong nexus between textual meaning and choice of key in almost all cases. Concepts such as the "affective spectrum," "affective modulation and tonicization," and "affective harmony" are introduced and applied to the music. The sixth chapter examines five case studies from vocal and choral music with orchestral accompaniment, in order to illustrate how tonal symbolism can function in a wider variety of contexts in Beethoven's oeuvre. Finally, Chapter Seven presents an instrumental case study, the Piano Sonata in D Minor, Op. 31, No. 2, applying the semiotic of affect established earlier as the principal tool for deconstructing meaning in this work.
This is the first volume to demonstrate through a combination of historical and empirical evidence that, in most instances, Beethoven does employ tonality in an affective way in his vocal music, paving the way for a future examination of the nexus between tonality and meaning his instrumental music.
Following an Introduction that outlines a justification for revisiting the concept of meaning in Beethoven's music, Chapter One assembles the historical case for Beethoven's knowledge of key characteristics, examining materials with which he was familiar, his own views, and various items of anecdotal evidence. The second chapter presents a survey of the keys employed by Beethoven, using evidence from contemporary writers, theorists, composers, and Beethoven's own works to establish congruency of affective meaning. Chapters Three to Five identify the significant body of empirical evidence that connects tonality and meaning in an examination of the solo songs, revealing the strong nexus between textual meaning and choice of key in almost all cases. Concepts such as the "affective spectrum," "affective modulation and tonicization," and "affective harmony" are introduced and applied to the music. The sixth chapter examines five case studies from vocal and choral music with orchestral accompaniment, in order to illustrate how tonal symbolism can function in a wider variety of contexts in Beethoven's oeuvre. Finally, Chapter Seven presents an instrumental case study, the Piano Sonata in D Minor, Op. 31, No. 2, applying the semiotic of affect established earlier as the principal tool for deconstructing meaning in this work.
This is the first volume to demonstrate through a combination of historical and empirical evidence that, in most instances, Beethoven does employ tonality in an affective way in his vocal music, paving the way for a future examination of the nexus between tonality and meaning his instrumental music.
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About the Author:
Paul M. Ellison is a native of Liverpool, England, and was educated at the Royal Academy of Music, London University, Queens' College, Cambridge, and Cardiff University. During his time in London, he was Director of Music and Organist at St. Mary's Church, The Boltons, in London's fashionable Chelsea. He emigrated to the United States in August 1988, and is currently Director of Music and Organist at the Church of the Advent of Christ the King, San Francisco's historic Anglo-Catholic parish. There he directs the professional choir, Schola Adventus, in a repertoire from Gregorian Chant to premiers of commissioned works. He directed the first ever recording of Palestrina's "Missa Confitebor tibi" on the Schola Adventus recording, Palestrina for Eight Voices, released in 2006. He has taught at San José State University, and is Associate Editor of The Beethoven Journal, the periodical of the American Beethoven Society. In July 2010, he was appointed Editor of The Journal of the Association of Anglican Musicians. He has been a lecturer in the Music Department at San Francisco State University since 2002, and is also a contributor of articles, program annotations and liner notes to various publications. He recently edited Dear Max/Lieber Malcolm for Pendragon Press which was published in July 2010. It is a record of the extensive correspondence between pianist Malcolm Frager and conductor Max Rudolf. Among the interesting highlights of his career Paul has performed for HRH The Prince Charles at Trinity College, Cambridge, directed the music at the weddings of actor Julian Sands and director Michael Attenborough and funerals of actor Leonard Rossiter and the Marquesa de Casa Maury (Freda Dudley Ward, sometime mistress of King Edward VIII).
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
- PublisherPendragon Press
- Publication date2014
- ISBN 10 1576472027
- ISBN 13 9781576472026
- BindingPaperback
- Number of pages437
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