Following Echoes: Exploring the Reverberations between Repetition, Analysis, and Musical Experience.

Abstract

This dissertation develops a framework for understanding and appraising the deceptively simple phenomenon of musical repetition, bringing a range of historical, philosophical, and music-theoretical views into dialogue. Although scholars often treat repetition as a relatively straightforward and unproblematic matter, I argue that repetitions are emergent patterns drawn from the music by a listener or analyst, who often sifts out conflicting elements and contextual influences in the process. Because repetition has so many different faces and touches upon such a wide range of areas in music, I approach this topic from both a meta-theoretical and an analytical perspective. Part I examines how various authors have discussed and used a paradigmatic instance of musical repetition: the motive. The ways in which these writers understand motives can be described in terms of a conceptual schema, a categorization of the possible ways to comprehend motivic relationships. My taxonomy provides a framework for situating how analysts and listeners 1) recognize and 2) verify motivic connections, while also exploring 3) what kinds of privileged relationships guide the construction of these associations. By juxtaposing different ways analysts have understood motives, I investigate the goals and techniques of each author, exploring the tensions that can arise between analytical systems and aesthetic priorities. In addition to its applicability to thematic analysis, this meta-analytical framework is relevant to a broader consideration of repetition in music. Building on the foundation of Part I, the second part focuses on three pieces from the twentieth century, each of which provides analytical challenges centered around repetition. In examining how Hindemith’s Fugue in E-flat from Ludus Tonalis interacts with historical considerations of fugal analysis, I highlight how a consideration of repetition can influence the analytical terrain and suggest alternative readings. The last two chapters of my dissertation investigate two kinds of incessant repetition: recurrent temporal units in Steve Reich’s Drumming, and the reiteration of the same aural events without a predictable temporal framework in Morton Feldman’s For Samuel Beckett. This contrast demonstrates the different ways musical repetition can structure experience.