Gestalt Theory Applied to Music: Considerations on Leo Brouwer's Nuevo Estudio Sencillo X - Omaggio a Stravinsky

Abstract

This paper aims to demonstrate the functionality of applying principles of Gestalt theory as an analytical tool to the field of music. Attempting to consider the sound object in its entirety, whose structure is composed of the relations between its constituent elements, we intend to provide subsidies that help the performer understand and perform musical material. First, we present a study of the fundamentals of Gestalt and its various approaches from its inception. Then we demonstrate and define the principles that govern performance and its structural organization that are later applied to the sound phenomenon using examples of musical excerpts taken from select pieces. Finally, we present a practical analysis of Nuevo Estudio Sencillo X – Omaggio a Stravinsky composed by the Cuban composer Leo Brouwer (1939) in which Gestalt principles are applied.

Keywords

• Gestalt. Análise musical. Organização perceptual. Estrutura musical. Leo Brouwer.