Balakirev’s “The Lark”: Interpretation and Performance

Following on from work carried out by Márta Grabócz, John Irving, Julian Hellaby and others, this article examines ways in which a piece of music can signify in terms of its structure, its dynamic and expressive trajectory and its topical content, and shows how a grasp of these aspects can be a valuable tool for the performer. Focusing on Balakirev’s arrangement of Glinka’s song “The Lark”, a particular beginning-middle-end design (Agawu 1991, 2009) is identified and shown to support and interact with dynamic, expressive and topical features. Recommendations for performance are drawn from these hermeneutic observations.