Form vs. Work

The antinomy of musical work and musical form has been central for music theory for centuries. Musical work is complete and all-inclusive, which makes it an ideal object of study. However, the teaching of musical form, albeit selective, is self-sufficient and epistemologically sovereign. The book offers both the historical overview and the analytical discourse on this antinomy in both Western and Russian perspectives. It presents an insider’s view of the latter and contains materials never previously published.

Ildar D. Khannanov is associate professor of music theory at Peabody Institute, Johns Hopkins University. He is a student of Yuri Kholopov (Moscow Conservatory), Pieter C. Van den Toorn (University of California, Santa Barbara), and Jacques Derrida (University of California, Irvine) and is a member of the Scientific Committee of EuroMAC. His scholarly interests range from music theory and analysis to philosophy, Soviet music theory, musical semiotics, ethnomusicology, and film music. Dr Khannanov has authored books and articles in English and Russian languages, including The Nonverbal Specificity of Music: Music Beyond Logos (2019), Music of Sergei Rachmaninoff: Seven Musical-Theoretical Etudes (2011), translation of Boleslav Yavorsky’s treatise The Design of Musical Speech (2022), chapters in Sounding the Virtual: Gilles Deleuze and the Theory and Philosophy of Music (2011), L’Analyse aujourd’hui (2015), and The Routledge Companion on Music and Space (2023). He actively participates in international conferences globally and took part in organizing the 10th European Music Analysis Conference (EuroMAC-10).