An improvisatory approach to nineteenth-century music

Mooiman, A. (2021)

Doctoral Thesis

In the field of Western art music, improvisation has become a much discussed topic. In this interdisciplinary study Mooiman argues that in this context, improvisation is not to be seen as a quasi-autonomous skill or art form, but as an aspect of music-making in general. With this research, Mooiman offers a ‘panorama’ of nineteenth-century styles and situations of music-making that together sketch a picture of improvisatory aspects of nineteenth-century music. Music was generally experienced as a wordless language, and he argues that making music was understood as a rhetorical act: performers strove for musical persuasion. This study focuses on the performer: it explores how performers in the nineteenth century might have thought during the real-time act of music-making, and how performers today might learn to use musical languages from the past actively again. For this last aspect, the area of music theory is relevant; Mooiman concludes his dissertation with a discussion of how traditional music theory is challenged by improvisatory music-making.

• Improvisation
• Classical Music
• Nineteenth Century
• Historically Informed Performance
• Rhetoric
• Music Theory
• Music Analysis
• Bel Canto

• All authors: Mooiman, A.
• Supervisor: Cobussen, M.A.; Fidom, J.
• Co-supervisor: Schuijer, M.C.
• Committee: Graybill, R.C.; Schröder, G.C.M.; Jong, J.C. de; Jonge, C.C. de; Wentz, J.A.
• Qualification: Doctor (dr.)
• Awarding Institution: Academy of Creative and Performing Arts (ACPA), Faculty of Humanities, Leiden University
• Date: 2021-12-14
• Sponsorship: NWO