Chapter VII of 'Philosophy and the Analysis of Music' gives an overview of the eclectic method and demonstrates how it is truly "circular" upon itself (185). Though each step in the method has questions and a direction, each step must also have the capacity to be infiltrated by any unexpected levels of musical significance. As an analyst, the key is to be responsive to what the artwork questions of you, and to "maintain a stance marked by openness" while working within the guiding principles of the methods (179).
The first step is to study the (mostly) musical history of both the time period that the composer wrote in and of the composer himself. One asks both general and specific questions of this nature in order to gain historical data. The second step is an open listening of the work, during which "the listener becomes oriented to the overall sound, structure, and message of the work" (181). There is no specific way to engage in an open listening; one simply listens without prejudgement, and keeps their ears open to notions that will be later explored. Step three is a "literal and direct" account of the syntax in a piece of music, and step four is a description of the sound-in-time which, unlike step three, employs a "poetic style" of descriptive language (182). The fifth step, "the first level of referential meanings," analyzes musical representation; that is, the "meanings" of a piece of music that can be found in "a program or a text" (183). The sixth step, and second level of referential meanings, is a report of how a piece of music is "expressive of human feelings"(183). This step involves a hermeneutic or interpretive analysis which allows for the listener to discover virtual feelings in a work. However, Ferrara warns that "during this step, the listener/analyst must exercise control over any proclivity to dominate the music by utilizing it for ordinary emotional release"(183). It is important to stay detached, especially in step six, so that one's personal sentiments do not interfere with the message of the piece. Step seven also uses hermeneutic analysis to uncover the cultural world of the composer within the piece of music. It is important to note that both steps six and seven "must be grounded in the levels of the sound-in-time and syntax," instead of analyzed with suspended judgement. In step seven, for example, one looks at how the cultural world relates with and emerges out of the syntax and sound, rather than giving a full and isolated cultural recount.
Although each step of the eclectic method functions independently, they are all brought together in Step Eight, the second open listening. Ferrara maintains: "Each stratum remains perceptibly discreet yet there is an inner connective organicity that weaves them together in a dynamic state" (185). In order to understand fully the complexity of a musical work, it is important to experience both the parts and the whole (multiple times), which is exactly what the eclectic method allows the analyst to do.
The last two steps are a performance guide and a meta-critique. The purpose of the former is to guide a potential performer in their comprehension of the work, whereas the latter is meant to provide the analyst with a chance to self-evaluate, and hopefully reveal to oneself ways in which the eclectic method and/or one's approach to it could be improved in the future.
Ferrara finishes off the chapter, and his discourse, by bridging the eclectic method together with Heidegger's philosophy of art. Just as Heidegger believes "truth" happens in an artwork, Ferrara asserts that "music" happens "when [an] analyst responds to the multiplicity of levels of musical significance in [a] work"(185-6). He maintains that the eclectic method, a method meant to respond and reconsider, is based upon this happening conception of music.
REACTION
I enjoyed this short review of the eclectic method. It rounded off the text nicely and demonstrated how each step moves smoothly into the next. Additionally, the comparison Ferrara made to a pianist practicing a 4-part fugue was a nice parallel to the eclectic method. It got the point across that if you take apart and closely examine each piece of something, and then put all the pieces back together, they will blend yet each part will inevitably retain something individual. I also enjoyed the parallel between Heidegger's art philosophy and the eclectic method. It elucidated why we studied Heidegger so in depth, and by reading text from two different authors (Ferrara and Heidegger) on the idea of a noun "happening" helped to both clarify and justify the concept.
Excellent work, Katie
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