Mapping Musical Dramaturgy: Towards a Theory of Rhetorical Performance
Mapping Musical Dramaturgy: Towards a Theory of Rhetorical Performance
Author(s): Joan GrimaltSubject(s): Language and Literature Studies, Fine Arts / Performing Arts, Music, Theoretical Linguistics
Published by: Towarzystwo Naukowe KUL & Katolicki Uniwersytet Lubelski Jana Pawła II
Keywords: musical dramaturgy; rhetoric; topoi; agency; Mozart
Summary/Abstract: The article explores a musical dramaturgy of topical and rhetorical references from the point of view of a performer. Using an early Mozart symphony, K. 19 (London, 1765), the profound links between improvisation and composition in the eighteenth century are manifested. For Enlightenment aesthetics, as well as for the early romantics, spontaneity is a token of genuineness, and the best key to beauty and truth. The term ‘rhetoric’ is used in a more radical sense as it is usual in musical analysis, to include gestures that not always classify as ‘figures’. Also, dramaturgy is the term proposed instead of musical ‘narrative’. Finally, a model of musical agency in five self-contained steps is proposed. It is based on a hermeneutic approach, and also on historical theoretical texts.
Journal: Roczniki Humanistyczne
- Issue Year: 72/2024
- Issue No: 12S
- Page Range: 29-43
- Page Count: 15
- Language: English
