Wordless Functional Analysis
Encyclopedia
Wordless functional analysis is a method of musical analysis
developed in the 1950s by the Austria
n-born British musician and writer Hans Keller
. The method is notable in that, unlike other forms of musical analysis, it is designed to be presented in musical sound alone, without any words being heard or read, and without analytic diagrams of any kind. For this purpose, Keller would construct an analysis in the form of an analytic score written for the same forces as the work under consideration and structured as a succession of 'analytic interludes' designed to be played between its movements.
The focus of such an analysis was the question of how a masterwork could incorporate strongly contrasting ideas and yet still produce the experience of unity and coherence. Keller's position on this issue was made clear in a number of articles:
Thus his 'FA' scores are designed to demonstrate that the rich 'foreground diversity' of a piece of great music is 'unified' at a 'background' level. To this end the analytic interludes juxtapose passages of the original work with aural demonstrations of the links between the work's various ideas, seeking to make audible to the listener a normally hidden and unnoticed 'latent unity' underlying the 'manifest contrasts'.
Keller produced more than a dozen of these analytic scores, with the works analysed being by Bach
, Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven and Britten. Several were broadcast on BBC
radio and on the Continent in the 1950s and '60s, though most were not published during his lifetime.
The development of the wordless method did not mean that Keller ceased to produce verbal articles and talks on music; in his view, however:
Keller's investigations into 'the unity of contrasts' were influenced by the analytic writings of Schoenberg
and Rudolph Reti
, both of whom he acknowledged. His discussion of 'manifest' contrasts and a 'latent' level of unity requiring to be revealed through analysis is explicitly indebted to Freud's model of dream-formation, which distinguishes between the 'manifest' content of the dream and the 'latent' dream-thought.
Scores:
Musical analysis
Musical analysis is the attempt to answer the question how does this music work?. The method employed to answer this question, and indeed exactly what is meant by the question, differs from analyst to analyst, and according to the purpose of the analysis. According to Ian Bent , analysis is "an...
developed in the 1950s by the Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
n-born British musician and writer Hans Keller
Hans Keller
Hans Keller was an influential Austrian-born British musician and writer who made significant contributions to musicology and music criticism, as well as being an insightful commentator on such disparate fields as psychoanalysis and football...
. The method is notable in that, unlike other forms of musical analysis, it is designed to be presented in musical sound alone, without any words being heard or read, and without analytic diagrams of any kind. For this purpose, Keller would construct an analysis in the form of an analytic score written for the same forces as the work under consideration and structured as a succession of 'analytic interludes' designed to be played between its movements.
The focus of such an analysis was the question of how a masterwork could incorporate strongly contrasting ideas and yet still produce the experience of unity and coherence. Keller's position on this issue was made clear in a number of articles:
Thus his 'FA' scores are designed to demonstrate that the rich 'foreground diversity' of a piece of great music is 'unified' at a 'background' level. To this end the analytic interludes juxtapose passages of the original work with aural demonstrations of the links between the work's various ideas, seeking to make audible to the listener a normally hidden and unnoticed 'latent unity' underlying the 'manifest contrasts'.
Keller produced more than a dozen of these analytic scores, with the works analysed being by Bach
Bạch
Bạch is a Vietnamese surname. The name is transliterated as Bai in Chinese and Baek, in Korean.Bach is the anglicized variation of the surname Bạch.-Notable people with the surname Bạch:* Bạch Liêu...
, Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven and Britten. Several were broadcast on BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
radio and on the Continent in the 1950s and '60s, though most were not published during his lifetime.
The development of the wordless method did not mean that Keller ceased to produce verbal articles and talks on music; in his view, however:
Keller's investigations into 'the unity of contrasts' were influenced by the analytic writings of Schoenberg
Schoenberg
Schoenberg is the surname of several persons:* Arnold Schoenberg , Austrian-American composer* Claude-Michel Schoenberg , French record producer, actor, singer, popular songwriter, and musical theatre composer...
and Rudolph Reti
Rudolph Reti
Rudolph Reti , was a musical analyst, composer and pianist. He was the older brother of the great chess master Richard Réti ....
, both of whom he acknowledged. His discussion of 'manifest' contrasts and a 'latent' level of unity requiring to be revealed through analysis is explicitly indebted to Freud's model of dream-formation, which distinguishes between the 'manifest' content of the dream and the 'latent' dream-thought.
Publications
Articles:Scores:
- Hans Keller: 'Functional Analysis No. 1' – of Mozart's String Quartet in D minor, K421 (The Score and IMA Magazine, 22, Feb. 1958)
- Hans Keller: 'Functional Analysis No. 2' – of Beethoven’s String Quartet in F minor, Op. 95'. Score prepared by Mark Doran and Val Williams, with an introduction by Christopher Wintle, in Hans Keller, Christopher Wintle: 'Beethoven’s String Quartets in F minor, Op. 95 and C# minor, Op. 131', Papers in Musicology, Department of Music, University of Nottingham, edited by Robert Pascall, 1995.
- Hans Keller, Functional Analysis: The Unity of Contrasting Themes [1957–62], ed. Gerold Gruber, Peter Lang AG, 2001, 500 pp.