The Practice of Performance: Studies in Musical Interpretation

The twelve essays in this volume reflect the most important trends in the study of musical performance. Three areas are investigated: the psychology of performance, the semantics of performance, and the relation between performance and analysis. The first section broaches fundamental issues such as text, expression, musical motion and the role of practice in the acquisition of expertise. The next four chapters address the shaping of structure and the projection of meaning in performance, while the last four consider performance as analytical paradigm, as dramatic narrative, as act of criticism, as temporal process. Among the distinguished international authorship are many accomplished performers whose practical experience ensures that the book contains vital and stimulating insights into the interpretation of music, and that it will speak to a wide musical audience.

-The first book to bring together numerous different performance-related topics.
-Many distinguished performers among the contributors.
-Aimed particularly at performers and teachers of musical instruments as well as musicologists.

Contents:
Preface
Part I. Fundamentals:
1. What do we perform?, Roy Howat
2. Expression in performance: generativity, perception and semiosis, Eric Clarke
3. Musical motion and performance: theoretical and empirical perspectives, Patrick Shove and Bruno H. Repp
4. Deliberate practice and elite musical performance, Ralf Th. Krampe and K. Anders Ericsson
Part II. Structure and Meaning in Performance:
5. The conductor and the theorist: Furtwängler, Schenker and the first movement of Beethoven?s Ninth Symphony, Nicholas Cook
6. A curious moment in Schumann?s Fourth Symphony: structure as the fusion of affect and intuition, David Epstein
7. Beginning-ending ambiguity: consequences of performance choices, Janet M. Levy
8. Strategies of irony in Prokofiev?s Violin Sonata in F minor Op. 80, Ronald Woodley
Part III. Performance and Process:
9. Performance and analysis: interaction and interpretation, Joel Lester
10. Analysis and the act of performance, William Rothstein
11. The pianist as critic Edward T. Cone
12. Playing in time: rhythm, metre and tempo in Brahms?s Fantasien Op. 116, John Rink
Index.
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