Music 1710F/G Lecture Notes - Margaret Bent, Musicology, Napoleonic Wars
5 Feb 2013
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November 30 readings/class notes history: what attitudes might a person or culture hold? (gender, class, sexual preference, race, politics?) Not such thing as a neutral edition. As performers make choices as ornamentation, musicologists make choices about transcribing melodies, and what questions are asked to write a paper. There is still a need for the old musicology. Mcclary"s idea that beethoven expressed the murderous rage of a rapist due to the violence of the recapitulation. Musicologists may have a place in cultural examination, but not examination of the individual composer. Not necessarily to judge the composer, but to evaluate the historical aspects of why they did what they did musically. Both musicologists and composers have bias for themselves/the composers which may hinder different perspectives. History is in the piece, aesthetics are of the time. Our job as musicologists is to get closer to what somebody was thinking by making the music we love.
