Chapter 7 is where Ferrara can finally unite his method as a whole, and explain it in detail, as opposed to the introduction. The author opens by acknowledging that to be open is to recognize that the nature of your questions structures the answers that you can collect. That being said, boundaries are necessary, and must be discernible. Each method is autonomous... it's integrity retained. Through the use of multiple methods, musical significance will transcend one's limitations.
The Eclectic Method is broken into ten steps:
1. Placing the work in a historical context.
-Important dates for composer, characteristic styles of period, level of significance, socio- political climates of the time.
The questions are non-exhaustive, and aren't universally applicable; there is room for variation, but the aforementioned provide a good starting ground.
2. Open listening (optional)
-Listener brackets out all prior knowledge of work to 'orient oneself to openness'
A written report is not necessary.
3. Musical Syntax
-Analyst applies conventional methods of analysis (literal and direct), while disregarding any phenomenological or hermeneutic data
4. Sound-in-time (phenomenological)
-Grounded in literal data, the analyst is freer to use more poetic or metaphorical prose.
5. Referential meaning (level one: musical representation)
-Finding the meaning of a program or text.
6. Referential meaning (expressivity of human feeling)
-Analyst assumes a detached stance from human feeling, but remains grounded in syntax and phenomenological data.
It is important to remember music is "expressive of" feeling, but does not actually have it.
7. Referential meaning (Onto-historical world of composer)
-One straddles the fine line between 'cultural documentary' and being founded in sound and syntax.
8. A return to open listening
-For this listening, prior data collected interact, as Ferrara says, "in a dynamic and polyphonic tapestry".
9. Performance guide
-Using a newfound understanding of the work, the analyst can present an insightful guide on the piece's performance.
10. Meta-critique
-Strengths and weaknesses of the eclectic method on the analysis is discussed.
Reaction
Where have I heard this all before? Ah yes, the prior 6 chapters. I hope that doesn't come off as cynical, because it's not meant to be, but I think this chapter straddles reiteration and reduncancy. Ferrara presents his method as a whole, which he hasn't done in any detail since the introduction. Despite having founded our knowledge, in depth, in the past six chapters, the author remains vague in his descriptions on the application of each method. I do understand that each work has it's own set of questions, and own ways to delineate and analyze, but I can't help but thinking this chapter could have benefited from a more thorough recapitulation of each method. The subsequent chapters, in which he applies his method, may make up for this chapter's brevity.
Excellent work, Ian.
ReplyDeleteGrade: A