Boccherini’s Body: An Essay in Carnal Musicology

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University of California Press, Nov 9, 2005 - Biography & Autobiography - 376 pages
In this elegant study of the works of the undeservedly neglected composer Luigi Boccherini, Elisabeth Le Guin uses knowledge gleaned from her own playing of the cello as the keystone of her original approach to the relationship between music and embodiment. In analyzing the striking qualities of Boccherini's music—its virtuosity, repetitiveness, obsessively nuanced dynamics, delicate sonorities, and rich palette of melancholy affects—Le Guin develops a historicized critical method based on the embodied experience of the performer. In the process, she redefines the temperament of the musical Enlightenment as one characterized by urgent, volatile inquiries into the nature of the self.

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Contents

Introduction
1
The First Movement of Boccherinis Cello Sonata in Eb Major Fuori Catalogo
14
Biographical
38
3 Gestures and Tableaux
65
4 Virtuosity Virtuality Virtue
105
5 A Melancholy Anatomy
160
The Early String Quartets
207
A Recreation
254
Chronological Table of String Quartets
271
Notes
273
Bibliography
331
Index
345
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About the author (2005)

Elisabeth Le Guin is Associate Professor of Musicology at the University of California, Los Angeles, and an internationally respected Baroque cellist.

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