Example 4. The overarching harmonic motion (I–III–V) of the exposition (Mendelssohn Piano Trio Op. 66, I mvt). As a result, the exposition of the C-minor Piano trio eventually portrays a three-key exposition, from C minor to the mediant E flat major and finally to G minor. More importantly, by declining the possibility to conclude the exposition in the relative major, the E♭ major becomes an in-between motion key as well. Unable to produce a closing cadence, itself an example of unfulfilled motion, it nevertheless offers the only genuine contrasting secondary theme to the primary theme, which makes the area thematically independent but harmonically unstable. From the perspective of performance, this may suggest a persistent, continuous motion towards the ultimate harmonic goal of the exposition, the perfect authentic cadence in G minor, which is only attained in bar 140.
final words Finally, I would like to add that since the interaction in this study between analysis and performance happened primarily during the preparatory stage of performance, my intention has not been to find best or most ‘suitable’ interpretation to the exclusion of all others. Rather, the analysis has a suggestive role, without an authoritative role over performance. I close my presentation by quoting Kofi Agawu, who writes ‘the case against analysis has been made in part by people who failed to recognise that analysis is ideally permanently open, that it is dynamic and on-going, and that it is subject only to provisional closure. In an ideal world, analysis would go on always and forever’ (Agawu 2004, 270). As a conclusion, I propose that it is precisely the processual quality of both analysis and performance where we find a common ground between the two. Rather than thinking an ‘analytical intervention’ will narrow our performance towards one direction, ideally we should consider it as yet another new viewpoint that may or may not work out in our performance. If we want to create dialogue between analysis and performance, the ideas that float around rehearsals 57