On the Musicological Necessity of Musical Analysis

Horton, Julian

doi:10.1093/musqtl/gdaa005

Cited by 4 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 5 publications

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“…Against these contexts, music analysis emerges as a ‘much‐vaunted pluralism’ in that it is one of many skills my students seek to learn to deepen their understanding of musical techniques across a range of styles, contexts and idioms (Horton 2020, p. 63). Because a liberal arts approach is built on the ability to make broad and in‐depth observations, a mode of analysis that focuses on musical minutiae for a sustained period is no longer tenable.…”

Section: Music Analysis Beyond the Classroommentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Another aspect has to do with insufficient effort by the applicant to communicate the humanistic value of their work. This concern might seem far removed from Horton's discussion of music analysis, but it links directly to his valuation of analytical surplus where musical technique manifests as a form of critical resistance (Horton 2020, pp. 88–91).…”

Section: Music Analysis Beyond the Classroommentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Horton writes for a specialist and, from what I have seen, largely sympathetic and empathetic audience. Playing devil's advocate for a moment, I imagine having a conversation about the value of music analysis as ‘a musicological necessity’ (Horton 2020, p. 94) with my dean in making a plea for additional hires or bolstering department funds. I'm fairly certain Horton's valorisation of ‘music's surface’, ‘what is artistic in music’ and an ‘imperative to comprehend art’ would appear lofty and not go far to serve my cause in the face of neoliberal economics.…”

Section: Music Analysis Beyond the Classroommentioning

confidence: 99%

“…I was asked to contribute to the original forum as a voice from the world of popular music studies in this discussion – therefore the rather childish Dr Seuss wordplay in my title – but it has increasingly become clear to me that the things I want to say about this stem just as much from being a voice from the world of vocational education. Horton mentions that ‘recent public debates about music's declining position in Britain's education system […] produce a potent cocktail of cultural‐political justifications for analysis's curricular irrelevance’ (Horton 2020, p. 2). I agree completely about ‘music's declining position’ but my experience in popular music studies is not of ‘analysis's curricular irrelevance’.…”

Section: Horton Hears the Whomentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This Critical Forum has been developed from a round table discussion of Julian Horton's 2020 article. The original discussion was convened by Ian Pace to conclude the Music in the University conference held at City, University of London in 2022.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Valuing the Surplus: Perspectives on Julian Horton's Article ‘On the Musicological Necessity of Music Analysis’, Musical Quarterly, 3/i–ii, pp. 62–104.Contributors: Kofi Agawu, Gurminder K. Bhogal, Esther Cavett, Jonathan Dunsby, Julian Horton, Alexandra Monchick, Ian Pace, Henry Stobart and Simon Zagorski‐Thomas, compiled and edited by Esther Cavett

Agawu,

Bhogal,

Cavett

et al. 2023

Music Analysis

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Julian Horton's 2020 article on the ‘necessity of analysis’ delineates previous critiques of music analysis into the performative and the historicist and counters their assumptions. He proposes that analysis remains viable in light of historical, ontological, systemic, discursive, phenomenological and political imperatives. Seven respondents critique his account from the perspectives of pedagogy, performance, traditional literacies, popular music, ethnomusicology, world music and the postcolonial. Horton responds to these responses, and Jonathan Dunsby concludes with a summary of key issues. This Critical Forum is proposed as a kaleidoscopic collection rather than a single review and raises fundamental questions about the nature of analysis within the academy, and the very purpose of musicological research.

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Section: Music Analysis Beyond the Classroommentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Music Analysis Beyond the Classroommentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Music Analysis Beyond the Classroommentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Horton Hears the Whomentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Valuing the Surplus: Perspectives on Julian Horton's Article ‘On the Musicological Necessity of Music Analysis’, Musical Quarterly, 3/i–ii, pp. 62–104.Contributors: Kofi Agawu, Gurminder K. Bhogal, Esther Cavett, Jonathan Dunsby, Julian Horton, Alexandra Monchick, Ian Pace, Henry Stobart and Simon Zagorski‐Thomas, compiled and edited by Esther Cavett

Agawu,

Bhogal,

Cavett

et al. 2023

Music Analysis

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Attachments on Display: Music Analysis in the Public Sphere

Tan

2024

Music Theory Spectrum

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In this article, I reflect on the nature of attachment within academic and public music theory. I focus on music analysis as a powerful activity that engenders attachments to musics, to methods, and often, to people. A key distinction between the scholarly and public spheres is how overtly affections and emotional commitments are expressed. Drawing first on academic writing and then turning to examples from YouTube, the podcasting world, and remarks from public music theorists, I contemplate the rewards and repercussions of putting one’s attachments on display.

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Analysis and Performance of Stockhausen's Klavierstück X

Jones

2023

Music Analysis

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Herbert Henck's (1980) analysis of Karlheinz Stockhausen's Klavierstück X (1961) offers a fascinating insight into the composer's compositional process at an important juncture in his career. In this article I draw on the now significant recording tradition, including Henck's own canonical version (on Stockhausen [1986] 1996), and Stockhausen's contemporaneous moment‐form theory to explore the influence of the performer – confronted with the many novel rhythmic and technical features of the score – on the salience of the serial processes that Henck describes and the concomitant emergence of the piece's form in performance. I begin with a summary and contextualisation of Henck's analysis in terms of performance practice and audience perception. This then informs my analysis of the eight commercially available recordings, proceeding from discussion of global and sectional tempo data and their bearing on the teleological drive of the piece to qualitative close readings of five case studies, whose serial aesthetics, structural properties and interrelationships are negotiated with recourse to Stockhausen's moment classifications. As well as illustrating the contingency of the performer's contribution on the piece's teleological, serial‐statistical and moment‐formal properties, my methods have epistemological implications for the reciprocal and peculiar relationship that, I argue, must continue to inform the relationship between analysis and performance in the field of New Music.

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On the Musicological Necessity of Musical Analysis

Cited by 4 publications

References 5 publications

Attachments on Display: Music Analysis in the Public Sphere

Analysis and Performance of Stockhausen's Klavierstück X

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