Philosophy and the Analysis of Music by Lawrence Ferrara

Summary:

In the introduction to his book, Ferrara asserts that a musical experience is the “synthesis of passion and rationality, emotion and understanding, body and mind.” He goes on to explain that there are multiple levels of meaning in music, which include sound-in-time, formal properties or syntax, reference to human feelings, and historical context. These levels can be organized into three broad classifications of methods of analysis. Phenominological analysis describes sound-in-time, conventional analysis offers explanations of musical form or syntax, and hermeneutic analysis supports interpretations of musical reference to human feelings. Ferrara points out that each classification neglects at least one of the essential levels of musical experience, and acknowledges the formalist belief that a dichotomy exists between the intrinsic and referential levels of music. However, he claims that while observation of the score in music(as in observation of hard data in science) yields an immediate and concrete corroboration of a formal analysis, musical reference must rely on conception as well as perception. To this end, Ferrara is attempting to create an “eclectic method” of musical analysis that will take all levels of musical experience into account. To do this he uses the following guidelines:

-Significance in music includes but goes beyond form or syntax

-What caused the work to be made need not bear upon its significance

-Psychological consequences in musical experience do not necessarily bear upon musical significance

-Music understood as pleasure is a secondary issue. What is of import is that music can be expressive of the most powerful human concerts and can exemplify those concerns in ways which ordinary language cannot.

Reflection:

I am really interested in Ferrara’s development of an eclectic method of musical analysis. I have been doing a fair amount of conducting recently and have been realizing more and more than there are, as Ferrara puts it, “music does exemplify extra-musical phenomena.” While the score alone does offer an incredible amount of information off of which to base my conducting, I have to leave the score to find a method of conveying my interpretation of the piece to the orchestra. Leaving the score leads me to those other levels that Ferrara listed: sound-in-time, reference to human emotion, and historical context. Therefore I think that this book-and this class by extension- will be an invaluable resource for me to develop my own eclectic method of analysis in my preparation of orchestral scores.

Along this same vein, I found the section where Ferrara acknowledges that good performers already combine conventional, phenomenological, and hermeneutic methods in their performances to be the most fascinating part of the introduction. I found this observation particularly interesting when juxtaposing it with a statement that was made in class regarding the purpose of the class, which is to reintroduce us to what got us interested in music in the first place (perhaps something that struck us before we even knew anything about formal theory). In retrospect, I have realized that the times when I have been most deeply intrigued by, interested in, and in love with music have been the times when I was subconsciously and simultaneously describing the sound, explaining the form, and interpreting the human reference of the music to myself. I hope to do much more of this, hone my eclectic skills, and learn to articulate what I find in words. I am really looking forward to applying these concepts further to my conducting.