Lies Koopman

Music as text: autonomy or symbiosis? Comparative research by means of close reading and textgenetic interpretation of ‘literary piano music'

This doctoral research calls upon two analytical methods supplied by literary theory, close reading and positivistic analysis, to arrive at, respectively, an absolute and a programmatic or textgenetic performance of literary piano music.
By means of comparative research on both performances, this research project aims at finding out how music and literature relate to each other in programme music based on literature, a genre often practised by a number of composers with a special feeling for literature (Schumann, Liszt, Debussy and Ravel). This research project wants to discover to what extent including ‘literary information' in an interpretation enlarges the possibilities when performing and to what extent a meaningful performance can be effected without the performer calling upon the literary source. It aims at pointing out the differences related to form and structure or to meaning and emotion and at finding out how the literary vocabulary can guide the musical interpretation.