Skip to main content
Aller à la page d’accueil de la Commission européenne (s’ouvre dans une nouvelle fenêtre)
français fr
CORDIS - Résultats de la recherche de l’UE
CORDIS

Towards a Diachronic Music Theory

Description du projet

Une approche diachronique de l’évolution musicale

Pendant des décennies, la théorie musicale a été dominée par des approches synchroniques, qui concernent des instantanés statiques de moments musicaux. Bien que précieuses, ces théories souffrent de trois importantes lacunes. Elles ne peuvent pas expliquer les tendances, car elles ne tiennent pas compte des processus de changement au fil du temps. Elles ne parviennent pas non plus à évaluer la musique entre deux instantanés, appliquant souvent des modèles dépassés ou anachroniques. Enfin, elles masquent les tendances en donnant un faux sentiment de stabilité. Le projet DIACHRONY, financé par le CER, entend modifier ce paradigme en adoptant une méthodologie diachronique, axée sur les processus de changement. En étudiant 1 700 œuvres de 1680 à 1819, le projet explore les tendances de la forme à grande échelle, de la structure des phrases, des cadences et des schémas, apportant de nouvelles perspectives sur l’évolution musicale.

Objectif

This proposal argues for a quantum shift in the way we theorize about music. In the past three decades, music theory has been dominated by synchronic theories based upon typologies. The value of these theories notwithstanding, there are three significant “blindspots” that arise from a purely synchronic perspective. First, synchronic approaches are incapable of explaining trends – they at best capture “snapshots” along a timeline, but cannot explain processes: how one snapshot progressed to another. Second, music written between two snapshots is evaluated in synchronic approaches either according to a defunct model, or according to one that had not yet come into existence, as often occurs with the music of the generation between Bach and Mozart. Third, such snapshots mask trends during their period of interest behind a false façade of stability.

I propose to address this problem through a diachronic methodology, designed to focus not on definitions and synchronic typologies, but rather on processes of change over time. To this end I will carry out a corpus study of unprecedented scope, covering 1700 works between 1680-1819. In two overlapping subprojects based upon the same corpus, I will examine trends in four fields: large-scale form; phrase structure; cadences (musical units signifying closure); and schemata (stock musical phrases).

Tracing the diachronic process of change across the decades of the corpus, I will reveal the forces that propelled music from one style to another, and through this, the tensions with which composers were faced and to which they responded. Furthermore, my novel diachronic approach will enable a more flexible mode of accounting for the fuzzy limits of theoretical definitions and histories. Lastly, with its original conceptual premises and its corpus-based methodology, this project will serve as a model for a new approach to music theory, encouraging the embrace of a diachronic perspective in other fields of music theory too.

Champ scientifique (EuroSciVoc)

Mots‑clés

Programme(s)

Thème(s)

Régime de financement

HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC Grants

Voir tous les projets financés dans le cadre de ce programme de financement

Appel à propositions

(s’ouvre dans une nouvelle fenêtre) ERC-2024-COG

Voir tous les projets financés au titre de cet appel

Institution d’accueil

THE HEBREW UNIVERSITY OF JERUSALEM
Contribution nette de l'UE
€ 2 000 000,00
Coût total
€ 2 000 000,00

Bénéficiaires (1)