"attractor Tempi" in Brahms's Symphony No. 2/III

Gotham, Mark R. H

Abstract

This analysis assesses tempo choice in the third movement of Brahms’s Second Symphony. It is shown that, at key moments of the movement, the average tempi used in a sample of commercial recordings align closely with those suggested by the “attractor” model of cognitively preferable (easiest) tempi (Gotham 2015). Between these stable checkpoints, the movement navigates through a variety of other metrical structures at (formally) the same tempo, each with their own attractor tempi. These necessarily align less well with the tempi used, thus providing a pattern of relative tension/relaxation, which the new model helps to elucidate.

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Online Publication Date: May 2, 2018
• Publication Date: May 2, 2018
• Deposit Date: Apr 11, 2024
• Journal: Music Theory Spectrum
• Print ISSN: 0195-6167
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 40
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 138 – 153
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/mts/mty010
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/2273255