Abstract
The Greek-born German musicologist Thrasybulos Georgiades (1907- 1977) published during 1950-70s a series of articles which discussed the music language of the composers of the ＂Viennese Classic.＂ In these treatises, Georgiades intentionally avoided terms like ＂symmetry,＂ ＂periodicity,＂ ＂sentence interleaving＂ and developed his own concepts such as ＂discontinuity,＂ ＂contrapposto,＂ ＂harmonic scaffolding,＂ ＂poly-metric＂ and ＂empty-measure.＂ Though they seem incomprehensible and extraordinary at first, these vocabularies did introduce some peculiar sound qualities and were used in several German books on the western music history for interpreting the works of the ＂Viennese Classic.＂ Thereby, Georgiades' ＂Viennese Classic＂ becomes an essential text to properly understand the classical style in German musicology in the second half of the 20th century. In order to properly interpret Georgiades' ＂Viennese Classic＂ discourse, this article starts with the discussion on his ideas about theater and language, and then illustrates sequentially the concepts ＂discontinuity,＂ ＂poly-metric,＂ ＂contrapposto,＂ ＂empty-measure,＂ and their inter-relations. The concept ＂empty-measure＂ is especially controversial because it is closely affiliated to his philosophical investigations. Finally, this article uses Hans-Georg Gadamer's comment to introduce how Georgiades appropriated and embedded philosophical concepts of phenomenology in his musicological discourse.