A Study Of Wordless Functional Analysis

Wordless functional analysis is a music analysis method created by Hans Keller, a British music theorist, under the influence of the theme analysis. Since the birth of wordless function analysis in 1960s, it has been the concern of Western theorists, and now been a matured music analysis method. However, Quit few studies has been conducted on the wordless functional analysis. The practice has been much more rare. As for the study on the wordless function analysis, it has only included some translating music terms, and been mentioned in some music theory articles which were not detailed enough, or of less deep and comprehensive understanding.With the comprehensive utilization of historical research method, literature research method, and case study method, this paper launched a detailed study on the wordless function analysis.This paper is divided into five chapters. Chapter I is about the origins and development of the wordless functional analysis and some analytical theories influenced Hans Keller; Chapter II summarizes the characteristics and the specific process of the wordless function analysis with some cases of Hans Keller; Chapter III proves the feasibility and the validity of this method with specific examples; chapter IV is about the practice of this method and the survey on its acceptance by people. Chapter V presents the realistic meaning, the prospects and also the defect of this analysis method.This paper systematically studied the theoretical background and practice of wordless functional analysis. The most important feature of wordless functional analysis is to understand music with music itself, which introduces a new way to music analysis practice. This paper expects to provide some help for the music analysis and some enlightenment for the music creation.