Diachrony and Musical Analysis
2 December 2025, 4:30pm GMT
The SMA’s Formal Theory Study Group is pleased to announce the online panel “Diachrony and Musical Analysis”, taking place on Tuesday, December 2 at 4:30pm GMT. While the new Formenlehre was sparked by re-examinations of the formal practices of Mozart, Haydn, and Beethoven in the work of William Caplin (Classical Form, 1998) and James Hepokoski and Warren Darcy (Elements of Sonata Theory, 2006), in recent years, the question of how those musical forms and practices have evolved over time has taken a central place in the new Formenlehre. Spurred by interest in how Romantic composers modified Classical formal practices and how those Classical conventions came to be, recent scholarship embraces the shifting nature of musical structure and technique. This diachronic approach to form is complemented by recent work on the evolution of topics and schemata, and their shifting meanings and conventions over time. To examine these diachronic approaches to musical meaning and structure, this panel brings together the following scholars:
Yoel Greenberg (Associate Professor, Hebrew University, Jerusalem)
Robert O. Gjerdingen (Professor Emeritus, Northwestern University)
Olga Sánchez-Kisielewska (Associate Instructional Professor, University of Chicago)
Emma Soldaat (Postdoctoral researcher, Hebrew University, Jerusalem)
Each panelist will present a lightning talk on the topic of diachrony and music analysis, followed by a discussion period and Q&A. By bringing together scholars of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century music, this panel aims to foster discussion of how forms, schemata, and topics evolve, and how they interact.
https://uni-sydney.zoom.us/j/89026700091?pwd=y8AXNMhau4i525warlczcoRLPmC0ri.1
Meeting ID: 890 2670 0091
Password: FTSG