Highpoints
Subtitle: a study of melodic peaks
By: Zohar Eitan.
Series: Studies in the criticism and theory of music
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
Published: 1997
Place of publication: Philadelphia
Language: eng
Number of pages: 187
Subjects: Melodic analysis.
Other titles: High points
Description: Highpoints investigates a universal melodic phenomenon - the melodic peak - in Western repertories ranging from eighteenth-century Galant music to twentieth-century Expressionism. Using "hard" statistical analysis, Zohar Eitan examines the rhythmic, melodic, harmonic, and dynamic configurations associated with contour peaks in the music of Haydn, Chopin, and Berg, three composers of decidedly different musical casts.

This empirical examination serves as a starting point in Eitan's exploration of the structural and expressive functions of melodic shape in these diverse bodies of music.

Melodic contour has received increasing attention from psychologists, music theorists, and ethnomusicologists partially because, unlike functional tonal relationships, it is a universal facet of auditory patterning and may be strongly related to primeval, "natural" aspects of perception.

By focusing on this elemental aspect, rather than on pitch syntax or conventional form, the author provides fresh insights into the work of the individual composers he discusses as well as an innovative approach to broad issues of musical style and style change. Highpoints concludes with a discussion, drawing on empirical findings, of melodic gesture and syntax as distinct, independent dimensions of style, style boundaries, and style change.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [173]-180) and index.