Investigating Musical Performance: Theoretical Models and Intersections (Musical Cultures of the Twentieth Century)

Investigating Musical Performance considers the wide range of perspectives on musical performance made tangible by the cross-disciplinary studies of the last decades and encourages a comparison and revision of theoretical and analytical paradigms. The chapters present different approaches to this multi-layered phenomenon, including the results of significant research projects. The complex nature of musical performance is revealed within each section which either suggests aspects of dialogue and contiguity or discusses divergences between theoretical models and perspectives. Part I elaborates on the history, current trends and crucial aspects of the study of musical performance; Part II is devoted to the development of theoretical models, highlighting sharply distinguished positions; Part III explores the relationship between sign and sound in score-based performances; finally, the focus of Part IV centres on gesture considered within different traditions of musicmaking. Three extra chapters by the editors complement Parts I and III and can be accessed via the online Routledge Music Research Portal. The volume shows actual and possible connections between topics, problems, analytical methods and theories, thereby reflecting the wealth of stimuli offered by research on the musical cultures of our times.

Gianmario Borio is Professor of Musicology at the University of Pavia and Director of the Institute of Music at the Fondazione Giorgio Cini, Venice. He is a member of the Academia Europaea, corresponding member of the American Musicological Society and corresponding fellow of the British Academy. His publications deal with several aspects of twentieth-century music (theory and aesthetics, political background, the audiovisual experience), the history of musical concepts and the theory of musical form.

Giovanni Giuriati is Professor of Ethnomusicology at the University of Rome ‘La Sapienza’ and Director of the Intercultural Institute for Comparative Music Studies at the Fondazione Giorgio Cini, Venice. He has researched and published extensively on the traditional music of Cambodia and Indonesia, and on the instrumental music and the relationship between music and festivals in southern Italy.

Alessandro Cecchi is Lecturer of Musicology at the University of Pisa. His publications mainly deal with music theory, musical aesthetics and twentieth-century music, including film music. He is director of the book series Musica.Performance.Media (NeoClassica).

Marco Lutzu is Lecturer of Ethnomusicology at the University of Cagliari. He has carried out fieldwork in Sardinia and Cuba, focusing on the relationship between music and religion, improvised poetry, hip hop culture and performance analysis. He is the scientific director of the Encyclopedia of Sardinian Music.