Annotation for Green, Michael D.

Mathis Lussy's Traite de l'expression musicale as a Window into Performance Practice

Annotation (by Jonathan D. Flowers):

In his Traite de l'expression musicale--accents, nuances et mouvements (Paris: Huegel, 1874), the Swiss piano pedagogue Mathis Lussy proposes that musical expression is not something added to a work through performers' actions. Instead, it is inherent in the structure of the music. Musical expression arises from the interaction among three types of emphasis composed into every musical piece and phrase: accent métrique, accent rhythmique, and accent pathétique. Specific types of musical events demand corresponding performance actions. Lussy posits that these laws are universal, so that there is only one correct way to express a piece of music. Faithful performances of the same piece therefore must apply similar nuances (inflections of dynamics) and mouvements (subtle inflections of pulse) to the same events within the work. These performances should differ only in the degree to which the performers execute those inflections.
Green applies Lussy's theory to suggest nuances and mouvements in the opening song of Schumann's cycle Frauenliebe und -leben. He then tests Lussy's theories by analyzing beat durations in twelve recorded performances through the use of a computer program. The recordings substantiate Lussy's theory with respect to surface detail since they all employ accelerando and ritardando in similar proportions at the same points in the music. The performances differ, however, in how these mouvements project the phrase structure. Nearly all of the recordings from the 1940s and 50s reflect a "poetic" model in which the all of the phrases share a nearly identical mean beat duration. The recordings from the 1970s embody a "prosaic" approach in which different phrases receive a different mean beat duration. Green therefore disputes Lussy's thesis that Schumann's song can be expressed in only one way. Although Lussy's theory may suggest a unique set of mouvements, these inflections can form part of more than one realization of the music's expressive content.
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