Analyzing form and measuring perceptual content in Mozart's Sonata K.282: A new theory of parametric analogues

Journal/Book: Music Percept. 1996; 13: Journals Dept, 2120 Berkeley Way, Berkeley, CA 94720. Univ Calif Press. 265-318.

Abstract: Hierarchic analysis in music necessarily separates form from content. However, in active listening, the two are indivisible. To illustrate this, I first analyze in Part 1 the opening movement in Mozart's Sonata K. 282 from the top down, using traditional methods in music theory. Arriving at the manifest level, I then dissect the music from the bottom up, relying on the implication-realization model (Narmour, 1977, 1989, 1990, 1991a, 1992). The contrasting perspectives reveal in great detail some of the movement's richly complex structuring. More generally, they confirm the inextricable feedback between parametric content and the meaning of form, specifically with respect to the contrary functions of closure and nonclosure. Following these analyses, Part 2 forges a synthesis by developing an implicative theory of analogical structures for melody, harmony, duration, and meter. Because, in terms of bottom-up processing, the analytical symbology for tracking structures is commensurable, we can, in all four primary parameters, weight similarity (aa), difference tab), closure (stability), and nonclosure (implication) with comparable numbers. Further, by adding in some essential stylistic properties from the top down (scale step, diatonic pitch set, tonal cadential closure), we are able to represent the overall rhythmic shape of the first phrase in a single two-dimensional graph. Thereby, we recapture from hierarchic analysis the perceptual sense that, in on-line listening, form and content are synthetically one.

Note: Article E Narmour, Univ Penn, Dept Mus, 201 S 34TH St, Philadelphia, PA 19104 USA

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