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/lit/ - Literature

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16450843 No.16450843 [Reply] [Original]

Are there any books of in depth analyses of music? Not teaching the concepts of what music is and about chords and structures etc. but presupposing knowledge of applying those concepts to really break down specific pieces. Kind of like an academic assignment - but in book form, for your own personal study and pleasure. Specifically interested in analyses of Beethoven's work (he is the GOAT after all). I've already read "Beethoven And His Nine Symphonies" by Sir George Grove.

>> No.16450996

What you are looking for is called harmonic analysis. You're welcome.

And by the way, Beethoven isn't the goat, that would be Bach. Get your facts straight.
Harmonically, melodically, and for a great majority within the musical social sphere, emotionally, Bach is much, MUCH better and deeper than him.

>> No.16451035

>>16450996
Analysis goes beyond just harmony. And no, Bach is great, but there was no artist before and there has been no artist since that accomplished anything on the scale of what Beethoven did. The Eroica, the 5th, the 9th, the late quartets, the late sonatas, the trios, they all stand at the very peak of their respective genres and indeed of all art.

>> No.16451095

>>16450843
I think serious musicological scholarship is incredibly underdeveloped and an understanding of all music on its OWN terms doesn't really exist in the same way that it does for, say, literature (think northrop frye). At most what we have are particular hermeneutics to apply to music history or a reductionist "music theory" that fails to account for anything but harmony and rhythm in any serious capacity. What you're looking for doesn't really exist with as much rigor as you're hoping to find.

In this regard, I think the PRIMARY concern for music today is reconciling music with itself.

>> No.16451297
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16451297

>>16450843
What's your goal? To write like Beethoven, to perform his pieces better, or to just engage in a circle jerk about how great he is?

Picrel is an interesting read by itself and is sometimes handy when preparing to start a new piece. It kind of hits all of the beats I described above with giving some fun facts about the stories surrounding each composition, an overview of things to listen for, and more subjective interpretation advice. The author also wrote a similar book for Hayden's keyboard works.

>> No.16451353

>>16451297
>engage in a circle jerk about how great he is
Yes.

>> No.16451361
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16451361

>>16450843
Lydian Chromatic Concept of Tonal Organization by George Russell

>> No.16451397

>>16451353
The /classical/ general on mu might be more helpful. Although you might have mostly tapped that well dry if you've already read a book analyzing the 9 symphonies (I really don't know). If something similar doesnt exist for his sonatas or his string quartets, that'd be an excellent idea for a book YOU could write anon.

>> No.16451415

Faustus

>> No.16451490

>>16450843
Henle, Shirmer and most decent editions of sheet music will have this type of info

>> No.16451535

>>16451397
/classical/ is nothing but shitposting and copypastas
Literal garbage

>> No.16452889
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16452889

i'm more familiar with literature about his sonatas, but here's what i would have done in your place

>find some kind of survey of beethoven bibliography like the one in "cambridge companion to beethoven"
>look up the symphony section
these appear relevant
>Hopkins, Antony, The Nine Symphonies of Beethoven (London, 1981)
>Levy, David, Beethoven. The Ninth Symphony (New York, 1995)
>Schenker, Heinrich, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony: A Portrayal of its Musical Content, with Running Commentary on Performance and Literature as well , tr. and ed. John Rothgeb (New Haven, 1992)
>Schneider, Herbert, Ludwig van Beethoven: 8. Sinfonie F-Dur, op. 93 (Mainz, 1989)

also 2nding
>>16451095
one should only read an analysis by other people after one has made an own attempt.

>> No.16452895

>>16450843
Read fux on counterpoint

>> No.16453471

>>16450843
idk Leonard Bernstein wrote some shit