Performing Music Shared Concerns [Paperback]

What does it feel like to perform music? Are there aspects of performance that remain mysterious even to the musicians themselves? What elements are open to scrutiny, experiment, and improvement? This book takes a stimulating look at dimensions of music-making that have not previously been considered together. Jonathan Dunsby deals with performance studies as a coherent subject, exploring such topics as the relationship between anxiety and artistry, tensions between Romanticism and Modernism, and the sound and design of music. Covering a number of intriguing issues in clear, non-technical language, Performing Music will provide the general reader with vivid insights into how performers think, and what they think about.

A brilliant, provocative book; its arguments should be considered by every thoughtful musician. --Choice

Dunsby is not only one of the most brilliant analysts of music today, but also an excellent pianist. In this book, he unites both his considerable talents to meditate on an aspect of music rarely treated: the relation of the psychology of listening to the psychology of performing. He tries to determine precisely the value of the study of music theory for the performer and also, more provocatively, the study of performance for the historian and theorist of music. What is most striking is the suppleness of his approach, his refusal to commit himself to a specific or systematic dogmatism. --Charles Rosen

Jonathan Dunsbyis Professor of Music at Reading University.