Event Name: SAME GESTURE, DIFFERENT CENTURY: RETHINK
Event Locator: 2026-ADXGZN

• Thinking About Music Lecture Series •
SAME GESTURE, DIFFERENT CENTURY: RETHINKING MODERNIST PERFORMANCE PRACTICE THROUGH THE MICROTIMING OF THE GAVOTTE
Johanna Frymoyer, Assistant Professor of Music Theory Faculty Fellow at the Nanovic Institute for European Studies at University of Notre Dame
When modernist composers adapt Classical dance gestures, how do performers shape the timing of those gestures in practice? Do they rely solely on modernist literalism, or do they intuitively draw upon older, embodied dance habits? To explore this problem, Frymoyer presents a comparative microtiming analysis of recorded performances across four gavotte excerpts in Mozart’s K. 284/iii and K. 466/i, and Schoenberg’s Suite, Op. 25/ii and iii. Using interonset-interval (IOI) deviation graphs and contour maps, she establishes an empirical baseline for the gavotte rhythm in Mozart to evaluate how interpreters navigate phrasing and anacrusis shaping in Schoenberg. Ultimately, she challenges the belief that performance practice is strictly period-bound. She argues that embodied dance gestures create deeply rooted motoric templates that transcend historical, stylistic and notational divides.
Estimated run time: TBD
Location: CCM Baur Room
Admission: FREE