Amateur Topical Competencies

Abstract

This chapter considers the topical competency of late eighteenth-century amateur players and listeners. Focus is on selected string quartets by Haydn, Mozart, and Pleyel. The analytical strategy is comparative, and therefore the analyses are limited to movements governed by clearly defined topics. The troping of learned and galant elements is the focus of discussion of three minuet movements, all of which incorporate contrapuntal techniques to varying structural and expressive ends. Parametric density is the focus of discussion of fourchassemovements. In both sets of examples, issues considered include topical content and syntactical function, topical dissonance, and social and cultural associations.

Second‐Order Topics and Prokofiev's String Quartets

“…2 No. 6 (1784): ‘no awareness of tonal motion or formal process is necessary for the player or listener to know where he [ sic ] is in the movement's structural unfolding’ (Lowe 2014, p. 624) 5. In other words, the use of topics with certain associations can aid formal comprehension, delineating clear landmarks.…”

“…4. On the role of perception of public in musical meaning for eighteenthcentury music, see Bonds (2008) and Lowe (2007 and.…”

“…5. See also Lowe (2007). Fabio Morabito employs this line of thinking to explore the difficult reception of Beethoven's late string quartets (Morabito 2020).…”