Encountering music analysis: structure, performance, text and beyond : Festschrift for Lauri Suurpää

Abstract

Modern music theory scrutinizes its subject matter not only as pitches, rhythms, and structures. Instead, the narrativity, referentiality, and cultural context of music are all aspects of music’s ontology that link music theory to other disciplines within academic music research. The potential applications of music theory are very broad: the knowledge generated by music analysis is not only indispensable for editorial research, but also a natural part of the methodology of artistic research. This research anthology celebrates Lauri Suurpää’s 25-year career as Professor of Music Theory at the Sibelius Academy. The Festschrift brings together key research themes and theoretical perspectives in his work, including narrativity, New Formenlehre and Schenkerian analysis. The relationship of classical music to the world around it and the internal coherence and logic of music are key areas of Suurpää’s research, which the authors of this anthology address from their own perspectives. The articles cover the entire tonal period of instrumental and vocal music, from Scarlatti and J. S. Bach to Anton Bruckner and Jean Sibelius.