111: L. Poundie Burstein

I am extremely thrilled to introduce my guest today, Professor of Music L. Poundie Burstein. He is a Professor at Hunter College College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York and he is here today to talk to me about his excellent new book which has been getting rave reviews, “Journeys Through Galant Expositions”.

0:40 Background 6:38 Why was Form not a big area of interest in the 1st half of the 18 century? 7:50 When did the shift happen towards an interest in Form in history? 9:21 Do discussions of Form refer to all types of compositions? 9:50 Is there a lot difference in Form between types of instrumental music? 11:04 Who else influenced you in the study of Form? 12:02 What made you decide on the Galant period? 13:03 Joseph Riepel 17:08 Did Riepel’s work influence composers in the 18th century? 18:27 Would modern analysts of Form find mistakes in Riepel’s work? 20:49 Did the Italians talk about Form? 21:44 What reasons brought about the change in interest in Form in the 18th century? 23:03 Was Form influenced by Rhetoric? 24:00 How did improvisers in the 18th century think of Form? 28:38 Did the 18th century conception of Form relate more to Resting Points rather than formal containers or key areas? 32:31 How did musicians in the 18th century think about key areas vs today? 34:23 Does melody influence Form? 37:16 Heinrich Christoph Koch 40:16 What was the difference between Koch and Riepel? 41:11 Was Koch representative of a typical 18th century music theorist? 41:58 What other differences are there between the 18th century and today? 43:37 Koch changing his mind on punctuated V chords 46:13 How do Harmony and Counterpoint influence Form? 47:01 What is the trimodular block in Sonata theory and can you elaborate on your commentary of it? 51:12 Haydn’s Symphony No. 14 Mvt 1 53:24 How does your theoretical work help approach challenges in other styles of music? 56:43 Top 3 Galant Composers 57:32 What’s the weirdest Galant composition you’ve ever encountered? 58:45 If you could sit down with any theorist or composer in history, who would it be and what would you talk about? 1:00:13 Name 3 Galant compositions that you talk about in your book that you find really interesting 1:02:07 Upcoming projects 1:03:24 Wrapping Up