Musical analysis

Musical analysis can be defined as a process attempting to answer the question "how does this music work?". The method employed to answer this question, and indeed exactly what is meant by the question, differs from analyst to analyst. According to Ian Bent (Bent, 1987), analysis is "an approach and method can be traced back to the 1750s ... it existed as a scholarly tool, albeit an auxiliary one, from the Middle Ages onwards."

Further reading

• Cook, Nicholas (1992). A Guide to Musical Analysis. ISBN 0393962555.
• Kresky, Jeffrey (1977). Tonal Music: Twelve Analytic Studies. ISBN 0253370116.