Reflections on performance have been part of Western musical theory ever since the composer emerged as an autonomous subject, a social phenomenon which finds its technical correlation in the tonal system. During the nineteenth century, the performance techniques for each and every instrument are accompanied by the development of a theoretical framework that specifically concerns the correlation between performance and the handed-down text. The Germanic world used the term “Vortrag” borrowed from rhetoric, whose fifth and last part is represented by the “pronuntiatio” or “actio”, namely the appropriate sonorous rendering of the text. The term indicates the fundamental role that is given to the idea of instrumental music as being similar to verbal communication, which is also the basis of the close relationship between performance theory and the Formenlehre. Twentieth century theorists – particularly those from the Schoenberg circle – took the relationship between text and sound even further, investigating the normative aspects of the score along with the implicit ones that elude the semiographic system.

About the sonorous rendering of musical texts: Theoretical stances since the mid-nineteenth century

Borio
2020-01-01

Abstract

Reflections on performance have been part of Western musical theory ever since the composer emerged as an autonomous subject, a social phenomenon which finds its technical correlation in the tonal system. During the nineteenth century, the performance techniques for each and every instrument are accompanied by the development of a theoretical framework that specifically concerns the correlation between performance and the handed-down text. The Germanic world used the term “Vortrag” borrowed from rhetoric, whose fifth and last part is represented by the “pronuntiatio” or “actio”, namely the appropriate sonorous rendering of the text. The term indicates the fundamental role that is given to the idea of instrumental music as being similar to verbal communication, which is also the basis of the close relationship between performance theory and the Formenlehre. Twentieth century theorists – particularly those from the Schoenberg circle – took the relationship between text and sound even further, investigating the normative aspects of the score along with the implicit ones that elude the semiographic system.
2020
978-0-367-13438-9
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11571/1350297
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