Wordless Rhetoric: Musical Form and the Metaphor of the Oration (studies in the History of Music)

This study explores evolving ideas of musical form from a historical perspective and sheds light on current conceptualizations of music. Evan Bonds examines the image - dominant among 18th-century composers and analysts - of music as a language, a kind of wordless discourse, which could move audiences. In his account of these changing perspectives, Bonds draws on the writings of a broad range of 18th- and 19th-century theorists. His analyses focus on specific sonata form movements by Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven and are informed by the theoretical premises that characterize the composers' own times. In a final synthesis, the 18th-century rhetorical model - with its focus on the structural function of musical ideas and the role of the listener - emerges as a forerunner of today's listener-orientated and plot theories about musical form. In "Wordless Rhetoric" Bonds makes use of literary theory to develop his innovative evaluation of musical form. In addition to the text, there are several musical examples included.