Interpreting music

332 Pages·2011·2.739 MB·English

by  Lawrence Kramer

Interpreting Music
The publisher gratefully acknowledges the generous support
of the the Ben and A. Jess Shenson Endowment Fund
in Visual and Performing Arts of the University of California
Press Foundation, made possible by Fred M. Levin and
Nancy Livingston, The Shenson Foundation.
The publisher also gratefully acknowledges the
generous contribution to this book provided by
the Dragan Plamenac Publication Endowment Fund
of the American Musicological Society.
Interpreting Music
Lawrence Kramer

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS
Berkeley Los Angeles London
Chapters 6, 9, and 11 and portions of chapters 2, 3, 4, and 5 have been published in a different form in the
journals or volumes listed below. All of this material has been reworked and revised for Interpreting Music,
in many cases extensively. My thanks to the publishers for permission to reprint the texts involved.
Chapter 6 as “Music, Historical Knowledge, and Critical Inquiry: Three Variations on the Ruins of Athens,”
Critical Inquiry 32 (2005): 61 – 76.
Chapter 9 as “Analysis Worldly and Unworldly,” The Musical Quarterly 87 (2004): 1 – 21.
Chapter 11 as “Odradek Analysis: Reflections on Musical Ontology,” Music Analysis 23 (2004): 287 – 309.
Portions of chapter 2 as “Signs Taken for Wonders: Words, Music, and the Performative,” in Word and Music
Studies 4, ed. Suzanne Lodato et al., 35 – 47 (Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2002).
Portions of chapter 3 as “Subjectivity Rampant! Music, Hermeneutics, and History,” in The Cultural Study of
Music, ed. Martin Clayton, Trevor Herbert, and Richard Middleton, 124 – 35 (New York: Routledge, 2002).
Portions of chapter 4 as “Musicology and Meaning,” The Musical Times 144 (2003): 6 – 12.
Portions of chapter 5 as “Music, Metaphor, and Metaphysics,” The Musical Times 145 (2004): 5 – 18.
University of California Press, one of the most distinguished university presses in the United States, enriches
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University of California Press
Berkeley and Los Angeles, California
University of California Press, Ltd.
London, England
© 2011 by The Regents of the University of California
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Kramer, Lawrence, 1946 – .
Interpreting music / Lawrence Kr amer.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
isbn 978-0-520-26705-3 (cloth : alk. paper)
isbn 978-0-520-26706-0 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Music— History and criticism. 2. Music—

Philosophy and aesthetics. I. Title.
ML193.K73 2011
781.1 — dc22 2010019716
Manufactured in the United States of America
19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
This book is printed on Cascades Enviro 100, a 100% postconsumer waste, recycled, de-inked fiber. FSC recycled
certified and processed chlorine free. It is acid free, Ecologo certified, and manufactured by BioGas energy.
Contents
List of Musical Examples vii
1. Hermeneutics 1
2. Language 20
3. Subjectivity 46
4. Meaning 63
5. Metaphor 81
6. History 96
7. Influence 113
8. Deconstruction 128
9. Analysis 144
10. Resemblance 162

11. Things 184
12. Classical 204
13. Modern 220
14. Works 241
15. Performance 258
16. Musicology 278
Notes 291
Index of Concepts 315
Index of Names 319
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Musical Examples
6.1. Beethoven, “Ode to Joy,” choral cadenza 109
8.1. Beethoven, La Malinconia, mm. 12–end 134

9.1. Beethoven, “Ghost” Trio (op. 70, no. 1), Largo, mm. 16–27 153

10.1. Chopin, Fantaisie-Impromptu, op. 66, mm. 25–40 163

10.2. Beethoven, “Moonlight” Sonata, Finale, mm. 9–15, 19–23 170

10.3. Chopin, Fantaisie-Impromptu, mm. 13–24 172

10.4. Chopin, Fantaisie-Impromptu, mm. 122–37 177

11.1. Schubert, “Die Stadt,” accompaniment figure 192
11.2. Schubert, “Die Stadt,” climactic cadence 195
11.3. Schumann, “Ich hab’ im Traum geweinet,”
climactic “deceptive cadence” 197
11.4. Beethoven, Piano S onata No. 16 in G Major, op. 31, no. 1, opening 200
11.5. Beethoven, Piano Sonata No. 16 in G Major, op. 31, no. 1,
end of first movement 201
13.1. Debussy, “Voiles,” pentatonic interlude 228
13.2. Debussy, “Voiles,” extract from conclusion 229
13.3. Schnittke, Third String Quartet, opening 233
13.4. Schnittke, Third String Quartet, third movement, pizzicato climax 239
13.5. Schnittke, Third String Quartet, close 240
15.1. Chopin, Mazurka in B Minor, op. 33, no. 4, opening, extracts from
segments A (in B minor), B (in C major), and C (in Bâ major) 265
15.2. Chopin, Mazurka in B Minor, op. 33, no. 4, left-hand cadenza 267
15.3. Chopin, Mazurka in B Minor, op. 33, no. 4, close 269
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1
Hermeneutics
This is a book about musical hermeneutics. A generation ago, no one would have
wanted to write it. Music by nature seemed to rule it out. Music did not seem to
mean the way other things do if it seemed to mean at all. This book tries to show
why and how that situation has changed—changed dramatically. Each chapter

examines a different concept or practice associated with the deceptively simple
phrase interpreting music. Hermeneutics is the art of interpretation. What do we
do when we interpret music? What do we learn by doing it? What is at stake? Why
should we care?
To begin answering, we need to reconsider hermeneutics generally. For this
book about what hermeneutics can do for music is also about what music can do
for hermeneutics, which needs some redoing. So this first chapter takes inter-
preting music as a mean s to reexamine the activity of interpreting any- and
everything, and to sketch the implicit worldview involved.
Music first. In everyday parlance, music is interpreted by being performed. The
performer’s actions both reproduce the music and produce an understanding of
it. But this understanding is mute, bodily, sometimes visceral and sometimes ges-
tural; it is communicated to the listener as a mutual understanding might be by a
nod, a gaze, or a facial expression. Musical hermeneutics adds an option. It seeks
to show how music works in the world by interpreting both music and musical
performances in language. To interpret music verbally is to give it a legible place
in the conduct of life.
Then any- and everything. In everyday parlance interpretation refers to the
expression of a viewpoint based on a fixed predisposition—either a personal

inclination or a system of belief. The first case produces a statement of opinion,
1