Musical Rhetoric Beyond Figures

«Musical Rhetoric Beyond Figures» offers a fresh exploration of musical rhetoric, moving beyond traditional catalogues of rhetorical figures to rediscover music as a living discourse rooted in historical and contemporary practice. This groundbreaking volume challenges conventional musicological approaches by emphasising music as a form of expressive speech, as experienced and interpreted by performers. Bringing together sixteen diverse chapters from leading scholars and practitioners, the book spans eras from the eighteenth century to the present, covering styles from Baroque to contemporary music. It reveals how rhetorical thought underpins musical interpretation, performance, and analysis, highlighting the dialogue between intuition and theory. Readers will find rich insights into how musical phrasing, gesture, and timing evoke rhetorical expression, transforming the way we understand and perform music. «Musical Rhetoric Beyond Figures» bridges the gap between scholarly reflection and practical performance, offering a range of perspectives on the interplay of rhetoric, memory, and dramaturgy in music. Carefully curated thematic sections explore historical contexts, performance practice, and rhetorical analysis, while addressing modern voices and contemporary compositions. This volume is essential for musicians, musicologists, and anyone passionate about the deeper communicative power of music. It opens new pathways to understanding music not merely as sound, but as a dynamic form of discourse that continues to shape artistic expression and audience experience in profound ways.

Joan Grimalt
Introduction: Musical Discourse Beyond Rhetorical Figures

Rhetorics and Performance in the Common-Practice Repertoire

Robert Hatten
Projecting Marked Moments and Expressive Trajectories in Performing Bach’s Allemande from the Partita No. 4 in D Major, BWV 828

Joan Grimalt
What do We Mean by ‘Musical Discourse’?

Pantelis Kogiamis
Approaching Enigmatic Metronome Marks in Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony through Metrical Prosodic Verse Pattern Analysis

Galatea Daskalaki
Unveiling Brahms: An Approach of Comprehension and Interpretation of the Intermezzo Op. 116, No. 2

Andrew Wong
Exploring the Unwritten Practices of 18th-Century French Baroque Vocal Traditions in Violin Playing

Rhetorics and Performance from the 20th Century Onwards

Melanie Plesch
Rhetorical Figures, Dysphoric Topoi and the Performance of Sorrow in Carlos Guastavino’s Guitar Sonata No. 1 (1967)

Valentín Benavides
Music that Weeps: The Rhethoric of Ritual Lament in José María Sánchez-Verdú’s Deploratio (1997)

Carlos Villar-Taboada
Rhetoric of an Invented Memory: José Luis Turina’s Fantasía sobre una fantasía de Alonso Mudarra

Alon Schab
The Clavichord and the Rhetoric of Intimacy: Exploring Keith Jarrett’s Book of Ways (1987)

Rhetorical Analysis and Dramaturgy

Martin Čurda
Musical Topics, Rhetorical Gestures, and Dramatic Trajectories in Mozart’s Piano Concerto K. 488

Águeda Pedrero-Encabo
Rhetoric and Narrativity: On the Poetic Style of Blasco de Nebra in the Adagio of the Sonata in A Major

Ramón Sobrino Cortizo
Música, alegoría y discurso narrativo en el Tríptico del Buen Pastor (1954) de Guridi

Sara Tabuenca Agramonte
The Sonata Form as Narrative Discourse in Franz Schubert: Hermeneutic Analysis of the Sonata D. 959 (1st Movement)

A Historical-Theoretical Perspective

Paulo F. de Castro
Virtual Dialogues: Towards a Critical-historical Approach to the Concepts of Musical Topic, Topos, and Intonation

Ryszard Daniel Golianek
Affect, Expression, Narration: Interpretation of Empfindsamkeit Music

Marcos Krieger
Aristotelian Kairos and the Performer’s Agency in Delivering Rhetorical Structures: Applications in Early 18th-Century German Keyboard Compositions

Abstracts and Biographies
Index of Names