Figures and Forms of Analysis Practice

For the last twenty years, studies of the history of musical analysis have undergone considerable revision. For a long time, analytical theories had monopolized the attention of historians (Ian Bent, for example). Then, the terms of analytic practice have become a new field of research (cf. Nicholas Cook’s contributions). By shifting interest to the conception and use of analytical discourse, musicologists have pursued an interest in intellectual tools and their dissemination. New players appeared: analysts themselves (and not only their ideas), and amateur and professional musicians made use of the increasing emphasis on analysis in the last two centuries. Finally, related research topics emerged: listening skills, genetic criticism, analysis of music performance—ideas all of are presented in this chapter and which are supported by an extensive bibliography. This chapter will present an overview of these recent changes: the development of musical analysis linked to several major changes in the cultural history (the literacy of musicians, the success of hermeneutics, art criticism or philology, the growing autonomy of art); how the analysis changed the way of composing musical works but also the profession of composer; the globalization of analysis beyond national traditions.