Year: 2024
Type: article
Abstract: This article makes a case for a motive-oriented approach to the performance of meter in posttonal music, first considering post-tonal adaptations of eighteenth-century motive-driven metric manipulations (Mirka 2009; Sullivan 2021a) and then considering more general instances of motivic repetition and imitation.The approach is initially framed in terms of a preference-rule theory of meter (Lerdahl and Jackendoff 1983) and then more fully in terms of focal impulse theory (Ito 2020).This article encourages a rethinking of traditional performance-analytic relationships, positioning a performance as the central mediator in an ongoing dialogue between performer and listener.Ambiguities in motive and meter complicate a motive-oriented performance practice while simultaneously creating interpretive room for the performer to shape a musical narrative.Finally, the motive-oriented approach is situated in a larger twentieth-century discourse about the rhythmic role of motivic repetition when such repetitions contradict the notated measure.Musical examples are drawn from works by Debussy, Schoenberg, Berg, Hindemith, Stravinsky, Penderecki, and Barber.
Source: Music Theory Online
DOI: 10.30535/mto.30.4.3
Author: James Sullivan
Institution: Michigan State University
Language: English
Subfield: Music
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W4409016793