Laurence Dreyfus

In this project I’ll be extending my analytical work on J.S. Bach to polyphonic works for viol consort by Orlando Gibbons and other English composers, trying to apply historically appropriate theories of composition to the analysis of this music to show how it acquires its considerable affective and emotive power. The method I’ve been developing bases itself as much as possible on historical sources which take a different view of musical structure from typical modes of musical analysis which all derive from the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries, and are generally more concerned with the order of events rather than the quality and variability of musical ideas. The earlier approach - seen in something like Christopher Simpson’s notion of a ‘platform of composition’ - evokes in my own work some remarkable affinities to French structuralism, which itself can help refine the way we understand this complex but very beautiful music from the 17^th century.