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The Formal Repeat

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2020

Jonathan Dunsby
Jonathan Dunsby*
Affiliation:
University of Reading
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Extract

The music of many cultures is characterized by lengthy musical repetitions, especially where ceremony, text and dance determine the amount of music needed. In Western Classical music, formal repetition is an especially prominent feature. Considering the number of pieces in the customary concert repertoire which include repeats, even the casual observer may be surprised to see only a dozen column inches devoted to the topic in The New Grove Dictionary of 1980, with only five bibliographical references, all to peripheral sources. The dictionary entry is, however, well focused, with examples to support its general theme that ‘the evolution of the notation, its exact interpretation and the practice of making repeats .. raise certain problems, not all of which have obvious solutions’.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of the Royal Musical Association , Volume 112 , Issue 2 , 1987 , pp. 196 - 207
Copyright
Copyright © 1987 Royal Musical Association

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References

1 This article is a revised version of an inaugural professorial address delivered in the Palmer Theatre, University of Reading on 4 March 1986Google Scholar

2 Michael Tilmouth, ‘Repeat’, The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (London, 1980), xv. 746-7Google Scholar

3 Allen Forte and Steven E Gilbert, Introduction to Schenkerian Analysis (New York, 1982), 278Google Scholar

4 (London, 1971), 395Google Scholar

5 (London, 1976), 60Google Scholar

6 See above, note 2Google Scholar

7 See above, note 5Google Scholar

8 Free Composition (Der freie Satz), trans Ernst Oster (New York, 1979), 129Google Scholar

9 Clear examples are presented by one of Schenker’s most reliable apologists, Ernst Oster, in Introduction to the Theory of Heinrich Schenker, trans John Rothgeb (New York, 1982), Examples 114 and 215Google Scholar

10 ‘To Repeat or Not to Repeat?’, Proceedings of the Royal Musical Association, 111 (1984-5), 136Google Scholar

11 School of Clavier Playing, trans Reymond H Haggh (Nebraska, 1982), 115-16Google Scholar

12 Introductory Essay on Composition ‘The Mechanical Rules of Melody’, sections 3 and 4, trans Nancy Kovaleff” Baker (New Haven, 1983), 171-2Google Scholar

13 The Musical Quarterly, 66 (1980), 339-60Google Scholar

14 Tomislav Volek and Jarslav Macek, ‘Beethoven’s Rehearsals at the Lobkowitz’s’, The Musical Times, 127 (1986), 75-80Google Scholar

15 I use the word ‘immediate’ to specify the exact area in which Broyles raises controversy More generally, pre-Classical ‘organicism’ would have to be accounted forGoogle Scholar

16 The indebtedness of such a formulation to Hans Keller should be obvious, but also recordedGoogle Scholar

17 (Munich, 1972), ‘Die Teilwiederholung bei Beethoven’, 214—24 (p 216- my translation)Google Scholar

18 (Berkeley, 1984), 56Google Scholar

19 Widely available in English, for example in Structuralism, ed Jacques Ehrmann (New York, 1970)Google Scholar

20 Kramer, Music and Poetry, 13Google Scholar

21 Beethoven Studies l, ed Alan Tyson (London, 1977), 84-105Google Scholar

22 For a different reading of Beethoven’s op. 119 no 8, see Nicholas Marston, ‘Trifles or a Multi-Trifle’, Music Analysis, (1976), 193-206 Marston discusses the probability that the last five op 119 Bagatelles (nos 7-11) were conceived as a unified set by the composer, in which case discussion of an individual number should be regarded as provisional I have argued elsewhere that organic coherence is not necessarily to be expected in the elements of a multi-piece.Google Scholar

23 Theorists should note that I do not question Schenker’s dictum that repetition is not to be found at the levels of fundamental structure or backgroundGoogle Scholar

24 Cone, ‘Beethoven’s Experiments’, 92Google Scholar

25 See above, note 8Google Scholar

26 Such a comment cannot be substantiated in this context, and it would be as interesting to see it proved wrong as proved right - though of course I believe it to be rightGoogle Scholar