Cue Abstraction and Global Temporal Structure: A Perceptual-Analytical Synthesis

Most branches of music theory and analysis (e.g., Formenlehre, semiotics, Schenkerian and motivic analysis) assume that global musical structures are perceptually salient. Empirical research, however, has cast doubt on the abilities of both untrained listeners and experienced musicians to appreciate form-salient aspects of global structure, even in cases where they recognize that a form is lacking in coherence. The two fields might be expected to engage in active discourse to reconcile these discrepancies, yet there is little collaboration between them regarding the perception of global structure. This article reviews the current state of knowledge regarding structural perception, emphasizing Irène Deliège’s research contributions and theoretical accounts of segmentation, categorization, and structural schematization. It then turns to music theory, discussing Caplin’s phenomenologically oriented account of formal/temporal functions. Synthesizing the two frameworks yields a novel approach highlighting the potential of musical cues to convey temporal information to the listener about where they are in the overall form at a given moment. This article demonstrates the dual lens of cue abstraction and temporal function in the perceptual analysis of works by Haydn and Beethoven. It concludes with a discussion of how interdisciplinary research into large-scale structure might be of value in pedagogy as well as in performance contexts, suggesting avenues along which such research might proceed in the future.