Analysis and perception in post-tonal music: an example from Kurtág’s String Quartet Op. 1

Abstract

In this study, two different types of analysis of a piece of post-tonal music (the fifth movement of the String Quartet Op.1 (1959) by G. Kurtág) are compared: an analysis performed by seven professional music analysts using the musical score, and a perceptual analysis carried out by two groups of subjects (18 musicians and 25 non-musicians) while listening in real time. Three possible macroforms proposed by the analysts were compared with those perceived by the listeners. The results show that the macroforms hypothesized by the analysts represented the basic framework for those perceived by the listeners; moreover, the musical competence possessed by the musicians who took part in the listening exercise does not, on the whole, appear to have affected the perception of the macroform of a post-tonal piece of music.