# Places/Sites to find Music Analysis



## SottoVoce (Jul 29, 2011)

Whenever I get interested in a work, or find that my understanding of it is stopping me from enjoying it, I find myself trying to find some musical analysis to try to help me appreciate it more. However, when I google most of the pieces I hear, even very famous ones, I find the Internet devoid of rigorous musical analysis. Do you guys do the same? Is there any website/books/anything that anyone knows that is a source of good musical analysis?


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## aleazk (Sep 30, 2011)

SottoVoce said:


> Whenever I get interested in a work, or find that my understanding of it is stopping me from enjoying it, I find myself trying to find some musical analysis to try to help me appreciate it more. However, when I google most of the pieces I hear, even very famous ones, I find the Internet devoid of rigorous musical analysis. Do you guys do the same? Is there any website/books/anything that anyone knows that is a source of good musical analysis?


What do you mean by a 'good' musical analysis?, on what aspects are you interested?


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## SottoVoce (Jul 29, 2011)

aleazk said:


> What do you mean by a 'good' musical analysis?, on what aspects are you interested?


Sorry for being ambiguous; analysis in the sense of "mapping" out the piece, not using figurative language but technical language in order to understand what's going on in the piece (modulations, motivic development, etc). Not the program note kind of analysis, but I guess in the loosest term the academic sense. I find that this kind of analysis helps me understand a piece much more effectively than the former.


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## aleazk (Sep 30, 2011)

I see. Generally I search online. I try to look for tesis (phd or whatever), academic journals, etc. A couple of minutes ago I was reading this, for example: http://www.stephenandrewtaylor.net/taylor-ligeti,africa.pdf.
I'm sure that there are online sources from universities (like there's for physics, for example), although with subscription.


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## Vaneyes (May 11, 2010)

For reference material, you could investigate this online subscription possibility. I don't know if it also provides live/rigorous discussion.

http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/public/about

For free, or optional donation, sites such as classical.net, musicweb-international.com, artsjournal.com, wrightmusic.net

Rigorous discussion may mean something like the Mahler List. Yahoo also has a number of moderated classical sites.

Perhaps as a last resort, the unmoderated uncouth Google Group rec.music.classical.recordings.

Re Googling tip, I find searching by composer is often better than searching by name of work. Many composer societies are now online, which can lead to bigger and better things.

I hope some of this can help. Good luck.


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## Orpheus (Jul 15, 2012)

You may find this useful: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006tn54 "Discovering music" is a long-running radio series broadcast by the BBC, which on each episode analyses and explains a single piece (usually) of classical music in detail, with frequent audio examples to illustrate the analysis (always useful!). They have quite a large back catalogue of old episodes available to listen online, so there's a good chance of finding one for the specific piece you're interested in if you search the site.


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## Ramako (Apr 28, 2012)

http://www.beethovenseroica.com/

this is the best site I've ever found for analysis of a piece - unfortunately similar sites don't seem to exist for other pieces.


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## violadude (May 2, 2011)

SottoVoce said:


> Whenever I get interested in a work, or find that my understanding of it is stopping me from enjoying it, I find myself trying to find some musical analysis to try to help me appreciate it more. However, when I google most of the pieces I hear, even very famous ones, I find the Internet devoid of rigorous musical analysis. Do you guys do the same? Is there any website/books/anything that anyone knows that is a source of good musical analysis?


I have the same problem.


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## violadude (May 2, 2011)

aleazk said:


> I see. Generally I search online. I try to look for tesis (phd or whatever), academic journals, etc. A couple of minutes ago I was reading this, for example: http://www.stephenandrewtaylor.net/taylor-ligeti,africa.pdf.
> I'm sure that there are online sources from universities (like there's for physics, for example), although with subscription.


Ack! I know that paper! I used it as a source for my final presentation in my Rhythm II class.


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## Jeremy Marchant (Mar 11, 2010)

SottoVoce said:


> Is there any website/books/anything that anyone knows that is a source of good musical analysis?


Yes, there are plenty of _books _(inevitably many out of print, but not necessarily unobtainable). Do you have any composers, genres etc specifically in mind?


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## Olias (Nov 18, 2010)

If you purchase courses from The Great Courses Company:

http://www.thegreatcourses.com/greatcourses.aspx

Each course on music comes with "Word Scores" that are very detailed. For example: the Symphonies of Beethoven course comes with VERY detailed word scores for all nine symphonies and the course takes you through each piece measure by measure. Wait until they go on sale before purchasing (they rotate the items on sale every month).


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## SottoVoce (Jul 29, 2011)

Thanks everyone for all these useful links; once I'm able to get into uni Grove will be an excellent source to look into. I found, as Jeremy said, that there are much more books on the subject than any resource on the web. Does any one have any experience with Burkhart's Anthology of Music Analysis or Form in Tonal Music: An Introduction to Analysis? Those are the two books that have peaked my interest.


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## Jeremy Marchant (Mar 11, 2010)

Sorry, I don't know either of those books. The reviews on Amazon are interesting. However, I have enough books on this stuff already (which I haven't read) so I doubt that I'll get another!


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

Does anyone still read Tovey? I've been meaning to find his books but haven't got around to it yet.


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## Jeremy Marchant (Mar 11, 2010)

Manxfeeder said:


> Does anyone still read Tovey? I've been meaning to find his books but haven't got around to it yet.


Well, I have his books on my shelves, which is a start. I recommend them - the music hasn't changed and the insights are as valid now as when written.


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