I want to challenge the idea that breaking down a musical work removes all of its significance. As a classically trained musician, I'm trained to analyze works and break them down in various ways (some of which could be purely structural, as in your example but there are others.) In no way does this make a significant work insignificant. The idea that music, or art in general, cannot stand up to rigorous analysis is sort of a belief that there is some inherent mysticism that evaporates simply because you know how it was done. Just as a fine meal still tastes delicious if you watch the chef prepare it, Mahler's 6th is still great even if you have the score in hand while listening to a performance. It's not magic - Good music is good for a lot of reasons, but being unexamined is not one of them.
I really enjoyed this article! It was a bit confusing at first, but after reading the whole thing, I finally got it. I especially love the ending paragraph - it really helped me understand the overall message of the article. Thank you for sharing this new perspective with me!
I want to challenge the idea that breaking down a musical work removes all of its significance. As a classically trained musician, I'm trained to analyze works and break them down in various ways (some of which could be purely structural, as in your example but there are others.) In no way does this make a significant work insignificant. The idea that music, or art in general, cannot stand up to rigorous analysis is sort of a belief that there is some inherent mysticism that evaporates simply because you know how it was done. Just as a fine meal still tastes delicious if you watch the chef prepare it, Mahler's 6th is still great even if you have the score in hand while listening to a performance. It's not magic - Good music is good for a lot of reasons, but being unexamined is not one of them.
I really enjoyed this article! It was a bit confusing at first, but after reading the whole thing, I finally got it. I especially love the ending paragraph - it really helped me understand the overall message of the article. Thank you for sharing this new perspective with me!