Emily R. E. Baron
N10038026
Educational Theatre
Spring 2009
E85.1505.001 - The Performing Arts in Western Civilization
SUMMARY
In the beginning of the chapter, Dr. Ferrara defines music and the ways one can experience it. This complex introduction presents three methods that the author will use in order to analyze music, how it's created, and the ways in which it's presented. The first is describing sound in time, or the phenomenological methods. The second is using a formal analysis (including newly discussed syntax), or the conventional methods and the third is using hermeneutic methods, or musical reference. In order to try to find emotion in a piece of music, Ferrara states that hermeneutic methods would be used whereas the other two methods would be used if the analyzer was studying music in a scientific form. According to the author, when combining all three different methods this creates an all together new method, the eclectic method. This final method fixes whatever problems the other analyzing techniques had while also intertwining them so that each piece of music can be be analyzed using 4 different methods.
Part one will look at what influence music has on society and the methods used to break each piece down, describing the differences and similarities between each method. Whereas part 2 examines why we use these different methods and examples as to how each method is used in real life. It is in part 3 that we take everything the reader has learned so far and apply it to examples of pieces of music. But tying together musical emotion and analysis, we are then able to attract more people to the ways of studying music and how each part is so relevant to the outside world.
PERSONAL REACTION
As I finish re-reading the introduction for a 3rd time, I finally understand what Ferrara is saying. Plowing into a book like that of Philosophy and the Analysis of Music was not an easy task for me. Because I am an educational theatre student, this class will be a challenge but one I am willing to try my best at and hopefully succeed.
Connecting what I read in the book to what we learned about in class as seen by our discussions over The Beatles' song "Imagine", I have a new understanding and passion for listening to music. Using conventional methods, a listener may find and connect an emotion to a song. Once listened to again and again, these emotions build up or new emotions are found. With these emotions, a new kind of knowledge enters the picture, which enhances how the listener hears and thinks about the specific song.
What I am very interested in discovering is what role technology plays in this whole process. Does it change the way we listen or find emotion? With new advancements everyday, how do they effec the past and what does this mean for listeners of the future? Only time will tell.
