Theorising style

This thesis is concerned with the style of musical theory in the twentieth century. Its primary aim is to delineate the style in which the institution of music theory has been constructed during this period. Style is described as a mutable term that, so long as it goes unexamined, threatens to disrupt the stability of the music-theoretical institution. The thesis begins with a discussion of the meaning of style as it is used in everyday discourse and in the specialised discourses of the arts and of music. It is observed that the word resists precise definition. Yet style functions as a point of reference for the entire literature of music theory, whether one thinks of style in terms of a composer's oeuvre, a historical period, or a technical motive. As such, it seems odd that very little research has hitherto been devoted to understanding the implications of style. Instead, style tends to be subsumed within an all-pervasive formalist epistemology. This thesis endeavours to provide a basis from which clearer consideration of these implications may proceed.The central section of the thesis comprises an analysis of the institutionalisation of music theory in the twentieth century, from Guido Adler to New Musicology. This analysis does not attend to the methodological approaches involved, but traces instead the stylistic background to the thinking, mainly in terms of influences from an interdisciplinary history of ideas. Separate chapters examine this stylistic background in terms of a pedigree of formalism, passing from a rationalist notion of form, through a structuralist, cognitive notion of form, to a non-essentialist, broadly constituted notion of form. It is noted that a strong thread of idealism unites each moment in the pedigree, and therefore the institution.Throughout, the thesis develops the idea that style, entrenched as it is within the musical institution, yet not a defined part of that institution, has a deconstructive capability such that it may enable the enterprise of music theory to be cast in a new, constructive light.