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McKee Eric , Decorum of the Minuet, Delirium of the Waltz: A Study of Dance-Music Relations in 3/4 Time (Bloomington : Indiana University Press , 2012). vii + 262 pp. $45.00.
Book Reviews
Especially in its incorporation of modes of inquiry from music analysis, musicology and dance history, Eric McKee's fascinating book on the minuet and the waltz has ambitious aims. As he notes at the outset:
I take the position that if one wishes better to understand the musical structures and expressive meanings contained in these dances, it is helpful to be aware of the bodily rhythms of the dances upon which they are based and the social contexts in which they were performed. In doing so, I approach dance music as a component within a multimedia art form, a form that involves the mutual interaction of physical motion, mental attitude, music, architecture, and dress. Moreover, the activity of participating in a ball involves a dynamic network of modalities (sight, sound, bodily awareness, touch, and smell), and these modalities can be experienced from a variety of perspectives (as a dancer, as a spectator, or as a musician) (p.1).
McKee's overall orientation is laudable, since functional dance music has largely been ignored by music analysts, and stylized dance music has been treated as if it had minimal connection to the practice of dancing. McKee investigates both functional and stylized dance music, devoting a chapter each to minuets by J.S. Bach and Mozart, a chapter to waltzes by Joseph Lanner and Johann Strauss Sr., and three chapters to the waltz music of Chopin.
Before proceeding to individual chapters, I offer three global observations. First, except for the three chapters devoted to Chopin's waltzes, each chapter is a relatively independent entity. McKee's six chapters are preceded by an introduction that establishes the social and musical importance of the minuet and the waltz to the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries respectively, provides a short literature survey, and outlines the book's organization. While the introduction points to common themes, which do reappear subsequently, the lack of a conclusion after the final Chopin chapter leaves it largely to the reader to trace them. Second, most of the contents of the Bach and Mozart chapters...