Interpreting Musical Gestures, Topics, and Tropes: Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert

by Robert S. Hatten

"Robert Hatten's new book is a worthy successor to his Musical Meaning in Beethoven, which established him as a front-rank scholar . . . in questions of musical meaning. . . . [B]oth how he approaches musical works and what he says about them are timely and to the point. Musical scholars in both musicology and theory will find much of value here, and will find their notions of musical meaning challenged and expanded." ―Patrick McCreless

This book continues to develop the semiotic theory of musical meaning presented in Robert S. Hatten's first book, Musical Meaning in Beethoven (IUP, 1994). In addition to expanding theories of markedness, topics, and tropes, Hatten offers a fresh contribution to the understanding of musical gestures, as grounded in biological, psychological, cultural, and music-stylistic competencies. By focusing on gestures, topics, tropes, and their interaction in the music of Mozart, Beethoven, and Schubert, Hatten demonstrates the power and elegance of synthetic structures and emergent meanings within a changing Viennese Classical style.

Musical Meaning and Interpretation―Robert S. Hatten, editor

Genres: Music

376 pages, Hardcover

First published December 1, 2004

Reviews

[Genni · Rating 5 out of 5]

There is much to learn from Hatten’s musical analysis. He advocates a semiotic approach to interpretation that doesn’t dichotomize structure and expression….an approach heavily influenced by an experience with Schubert and subsequent studies in the scientific underpinnings of linguistic gesture and communication. The weakness of his argument is simply that we cannot ask Beethoven whether or not he approached his compositions more synthetically or simply “manipulated gestures to highlight motives.” What Hatten’s argument does do, though, is broaden one’s toolkit for analysis. Very much worth reading for performers and serious listeners alike.