MASTERPIECES IN MUSIC AND LITERATURE - HISTORIOMETRIC INQUIRIES

Having taken a class from Rudolf Arnheim during my graduate days at Ha rvard University, I can take this experience as the point of departure for describing a research program that departs appreciably from that of my former teacher Rather than the single-case, qualitative, and int erpretative approach favored by Arnheim, I argued for a multiple-case, quantitative, and hypothesis-testing approach-the historiometric anal ysis of artistic products. The advantages of such historiometric analy ses are then illustrated by reviewing key findings in three separate d omains: Western classical music, dramatic and poetic literature, and o pera. I also discussed whether these same techniques can be usefully a pplied to the visual arts, the domain that most interested Arnheim.