Relating Musical Structure and Content to Aesthetic Response: A Model and Analysis of Beethoven’s Piano Sonata Op. 110

Abstract

A model is presented which aims to show how, for listeners familiar with a given style, aesthetic response to music may be related to its ‘structure’ (as defined in relation to ‘zygonic’ theory) and ‘content’ (the particular perceived qualities of sound that pertain to a given musical event). The model combines recent empirical findings from music psychology with other approaches adapted from music theory and philosophy. Intramusical considerations, which form the core of the model, are positioned within a broader socio-cultural, cognitive and physical context. The new framework is used to inform an analysis of Beethoven's Piano Sonata op. 110, which examines in particular the notions of teleology in music and narrative metaphor.