Formal Analysis, Structural
Analysis, Rhetorical Analysis: F. Chopin’s Nocturne op. 27 No 1
This paper purposes to investigate both traditional oppositions,
form/structure and continuity/discontinuity, from theoretical legacy of 20th-century
linguistic thought (E.
Benveniste, Groupe m). This research will be initiated by a critical
analysis of F. Chopin’s Nocturne op. 27 No 1. The nocturne will be analysed into its component parts (melodic
material, harmonic sequences, contrasts of texture, etc.) using the
traditional typology of formal theory as well as several analyses of this
work. However, such a segmentation leads to an impasse from an analytical
point of view: juxtaposition and listing of successive units of this work –
as technical as they are – fail to point out the singular and
problematic unity of this nocturne. We have to think about the form of the
nocturne through a new opposition: consecution/integration, and bring in
notions of function and level. In this way, Chopin’s nocturne stands between
two structural types (‘tripartite’ structure and ‘strophic’ structure). To
analyse this ambiguous aesthetic, we have to reckon, in the ‘concrete form’
(A. Souris), with some of its component parts which are not systematised by
any theory. This last stage focusing on the notion of figure, gets musical
analysis into the sphere of the rhetoric analysis and shows the way for a new
poetic analysis of the work. |