The limits of analysis

Due Oct 5, 2020 by 9:30am
Points 10
Submitting a discussion post

After reading Jonathan Cross, ed., Music Analysis, 22/i-ii (2003), Editorial Download Jonathan Cross, ed., Music Analysis, 22/i-ii (2003), Editorial

Please post a c. 100-150-word response to the questions listed below.

You must also respond to at least one post from another student.

Questions:

1) How do we know if a piece of music is good? Is there anything objective about it? Does saying “this is a good piece” just mean “I like this piece”?

What is the basic set of assumptions (i.e., beliefs) about value in classical music?

Are these things still valued/valuable in our culture today?

Where are there points of conflict with contemporary society?

How do/should composers respond to these?

2) How do we know which pieces are good to analyze? Are there pieces that are impossible to analyze with these methods? Does that make these pieces worse / better? Why? What, if any, relationship is there between analysis and musical quality?

3) What about innovation/progress? It’s undeniable that the 20^th/21^st centuries have seen a huge expansion in genres and styles of music competing for attention. Does progress still exist in art? Did it ever?