Key-Specific Structure in Mozart's Music
A Peek into his Creative Process
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 21749024 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Uri B Rom (0000-0003-0071-0128, Tel Aviv University), Saharon Rosset (Tel Aviv University) |
| Year | 2023 |
| Volume | 16 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 276-311 |
| Publication date | 2023-03-07 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Empirical Musicology Review (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1559-5749 • E-ISSN: 1559-5749 |
| Publisher | The Ohio State University Libraries (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.18061/emr.v16i2.7639 |
| OpenAlex | W4323350460 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 7 |
Theories of tonal music take for granted that all keys of the same mode (i.e., all major and all minor keys) are employed by composers in essentially the same way; however, newer analytical and cognitive research challenges this view by pointing to aspects of transpositional nonequivalence among the keys. The present study offers possibly the first systematic, data-driven investigation of correlations between the choice of absolute key and structure across a composer's body of works. By performing an extensive corpus-based analysis of music by Wolfgang Amadé Mozart (1756–91), we derive 55 prototypes, subsuming phenomena from three independent domains: dynamic-rhetoric gestures that launch orchestral works, digressions to the parallel minor in sonata-allegro movements, and the occurrences of a particular six-note motive across Mozart's complete oeuvre. Ten prototypes display a significant association with a specific key after correction for multiple comparisons, amounting to a statistically significant total. Investigation of key-related musical structure offers fresh insight into Mozart's compositional decisions and the relation between schemata and their instantiations in his works, at the same time suggesting a revised perspective on traditional key characteristics. Mozart's perfect pitch offers one possible explanation for the role of key-related structure in his works; however, we also contemplate other possible explanations
Art · Data mining · Human–computer interaction · Linguistics · Literature · MOZART · Musical · Musical composition · Musical form · Tonality · Computer Science · Diverse Musicological Studies · Music and Audio Processing · Neuroscience and Music Perception · Philosophy · Psychology
| Highly cited | No |
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