Rhythmic Contour Analysis of Beethoven Symphony 7/I (Poco sostenuto intro)

Stephen Soderberg

I've just put up for comment the draft of a portion of a W.I.P. at the Academia web site which includes an analysis of the intro of mvt I of the Beethoven 7th Symphony. The work as a whole is a series of accumulating 'lab notes' titled 'Antinomies, Ambiguities, and Broken Symmetries: Decortical Notes on Olivier Messiaen's Île de feu I & II'. Before completing the section which applies a theory of rhythmic contours to the Messiaen pieces, I decided to test the theory on some Beethoven. I'd be interested in any comments on the result. I'd also like to know of any other work in pattern recognition that's been done specifically on rhythmic contours and/or duration string theory. Please read the theory and the Beethoven analysis here:

https://www.academia.edu/s/c8c8a461ce/wip-antinomies-ambiguities-and-broken-symmetries-decortical-notes-1-on-olivier-messiaens-ile-de-feu-i-ii

Feel free to comment/critique either on the Academia site or here or send a private note. Thanks!

(BTW: 'Decortical' comes from a Messiaen quote: 'I teach composition class at the Conservatoire where, for the past forty years, I've spent my time decorticating musical works, trying to figure out what happens in them.' Maybe we should finally let our friends in critical musicology have the word 'analysis' to themselves and begin to use the term 'musical decortication'. Then to be consistent 'composition' would be 'musical encortication'? Hmmm. Maybe not. Never mind. :-) )