Musical Expression (Musicology by Mathis Lussy and Émile Jaques-Dalcroze in English)

Musical Expression (Musicology by Mathis Lussy and Émile Jaques-Dalcroze in English)

This work is newly translated into English after Lussy's other two major musicological works, Musical Rhythm , and Anacrusis in modern music, which discuss rhythm in its various forms and possible effects. Lussy does not consider rhythm in the abstract, as a symbolic form, as it were, but rather identifies "rhythms" as compositional cells with a metrical nature and melodic and harmonic attributes (just as in ancient times was done by Aristoxenus). In this highly successful work he moves up from the domain of forms to the more complex domain of musical meaning that can result from their variation and composition, also studying the appropriate use of accents and agogic and dynamic gradations. He proceeds by induction, from a vast repertoire of examples and from his own experience of listening to the major masters of the period. Musical meaning that expresses not only the compositional intent that the performer seeks to capture, but also what the composer unconsciously betrays by his or her choices and omissions.