Themes from the galant style through the syncretic method
Cécile Bardoux Lovén · 2015
The syncretic method contributes to renew the analytical understanding of tonal and post-tonal music, especially concerning the melodic dimension. Its main purpose consists in manifesting how melodies are structured, regarding linearity and elaborations. Its efficiency resides in the logical combination of terminologies and graphic representations of the music, which mainly emanate from the theories of Schenker and Meyer. Besides some new stylistic aspects that it highlights, it is able to transmit a spatial understanding of the musical movement. This has consequences both for musicology and music pedagogy.This paper will critically (1) set out the principal tools and the graphic representation of the method, (2) submit the analysis of themes from the period of the galant style, and (3) put forward some new stylistic aspects that the syncretic method highlights, compared to analyses of previous theories. Thus, the paper will show how the syncretic method gives a gathered and useful response regarding musicological and music pedagogical perspectives.