Commentary on Leigh VanHandel's 'National Metrical Types in Nineteenth Century Art Song'

Abstract

Leigh VanHandel’s study of metrical locations or phrase beginnings and endings in art songs of the 19th century provides a glance into one property of lyric settings unstudied before. Its fastidious data can be trusted, and yet the study’s hard relevance to matters of musical substance, matters of import to a song’s perception, is questionable.