Mary Ann Smart, Mimomania: Music and Gesture in Nineteenth-Century Opera (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2004). 245 pp. $50

The Contrast Principle, Typicality, and Cultural Longevity in 19th-Century Symphony Slow Movements: A Corpus Analysis

“…Dahlhaus (1989) observed that “[t]he history of the symphony…looks almost like a history of the conclusions that composers were able to draw from Beethoven's various models of the symphonic principle: from the Third and Seventh Symphonies in the case of Berlioz, the Sixth in the case of Mendelssohn, and the Ninth in the case of Bruckner” (p. 78). One need not accept those conclusions unquestioningly (cf.…”

“…While it is possible to depict style as an aggregate of widespread practices, the picture is likely incomplete unless it also considers influential prototypes. In this context, Beethoven's nine Symphonies would seem to demand inclusion, given their preeminence in 19th-century symphonic aesthetics (Burnham, 2005; Dahlhaus, 1989) and their enduring popularity down to the present day (Lowe, 2020; Street, 2013). We propose a “Long 19th Century” from 1800 through 1913 as a chronological frame (cf.…”

The evolution of human music in light of increased prosocial behavior: a new model

“…Deliberate "lying" -i.e., "putting on an act" while not believing it -as a method of performance practice can exist only in music that segregates the performer, the composer, and the listenerwhich is solely Western classical music and its offsprings (musicals, commercial popular and folk music, etc.). And even in this tradition, insincerity and "emotional faking" on part of a performer (just like pretend crying or laughing by bad actors) is regarded as a fault that is often interpreted as performer's neglect of aesthetic matters in favor of mercantile ones and is associated with the negative influence of the entertainment industry [230]. A good classical performer is expected to treat a musical composition as a "method-actor", living through the emotional experience of a protagonist he impersonates [231].…”