Interpretation and aporias: perspectives from a classical musician in the 21st century

- Harvey, Michael Kieran

Title
Interpretation and aporias: perspectives from a classical musician in the 21st century
Creator
Harvey, Michael Kieran
Relation
University of Newcastle Research Higher Degree Thesis
Resource Type
thesis
Date
2018
Description
Research Doctorate - Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Description
This thesis examines the relationship between the 21st century composer/pianist’s interpretation and composition of virtuoso piano repertoire and the classical music concert tradition within the Australian context. It argues that the interpretation of concert music is a hermeneutic process. This hermeneutic process is applicable to performances that can involve adherence to the original work, radical deviation from the original work or the proposing of a new alternative to the original work. The interpretative process can also be seen in the scores examined in this thesis, and in the author’s folio. The classical concert music tradition identifies with the canon of works most of which is based on repertoire from 1750 to the 1940s. This traditional repertoire is based on virtuosity and interpretation. However, interpretation has been codified by certain restrictions, where any deviation from the commonly held view about the performance of classical music can be considered unacceptable by the musical establishment. This creates a problem for the composer/pianist in the 21st century who engages with the classical concert music tradition. While the classical tradition was developed by composer/pianists such as Mozart, Beethoven, Liszt, Busoni and Bartók, composer/pianists in the late 20th century and early 21st century are required to recreate the works from these masters but not contribute their own creative works to the classical performance tradition. The thesis examines writings by composer/pianists, theorists, philosophers and critics in order to contextualise the classical concert tradition within a sociology and history-of-music framework. It discusses the problem the classical concert tradition creates for the 21st century composer/pianist within the context of an aporia (an unsolvable problem). Self-appropriation is a consequence of interpretation and is a solution to the aporia. The author proposes a hermeneutic methodology based on a set of strategies involving self-appropriation, semiology, rhetorical devices such as metaphor and analogy, musical forms and piano repertoire. This methodology is applied by way of proof of concept with case studies on Liszt, Bartók and Stockhausen, showing how these composers (and others) have addressed the problem created by the classical concert music tradition, and the irony created when these composers, in challenging the concert tradition, become the concert tradition. Having discussed the case studies, the author presents his own compositions as a further proof of concept, in which the original compositions are hermeneutic essays about the piano repertoire and the 21st century context. The thesis concludes with the positioning of the 21st century composer/pianist as a logical extension of the classical music concert tradition. This logical extension is part of a long-standing tradition of the composer/pianist as hermeneutist.
Subject
interpretation; aporia; classical musician; 21st century; composition
Identifier
http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1385773
Identifier
uon:32291
Rights
Copyright 2018 Michael Kieran Harvey
Language
eng
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ATTACHMENT01 Thesis 21 MB Adobe Acrobat PDF
ATTACHMENT02 Abstract 231 KB Adobe Acrobat PDF
ATTACHMENT03 Supplementary Files Music 238 MB Zip Compressed File
ATTACHMENT04 Supplementary Files Score 13 MB Zip Compressed File
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