Conceptualizing Music: Cognitive Structure, Theory, and Analysis (Ams Studies in Music Series)

377 Pages·2002·7.63 MB·english

by  Lawrence M. Zbikowski

Conceptualizing Music:

Cognitive Structure,

Theory, and Analysis

Lawrence M. Zbikowski
OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
CONCEPTUALIZING MUSIC
AMS Studies in Music(cid:1)
Lawrence F. Bernstein, General Editor(cid:1)
Editorial Board(cid:1)
Joseph Auner(cid:1)
Scott Bur(cid:1)nham(cid:1)
Richard Crawford(cid:1)
Walter Fr(cid:1)isch,(cid:1)Chair(cid:1)
Sarah Fuller(cid:1)
Robert Judd(cid:1)
Janet Levy(cid:1)
Jessie Ann Owens(cid:1)
Kerala Snyder(cid:1)
Judith Tick(cid:1)
Gary Tomlinson(cid:1)
Q

CONCEPTUALIZING

M U S I C

Cognitive Structure,(cid:1)Theory,(cid:1)and Analysis(cid:1)
Lawrence M. Zbikowski

1

2002
3

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Zbikowski,(cid:1)Lawrence Michael.

Conceptualizing music :(cid:1)cognitive structure,(cid:1)theory,(cid:1)and analysis / Lawrence M.(cid:1)Zbikowski.

p.(cid:1)cm.(cid:1)— (AMS studies in music)

Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index.

ISBN 0-19-514023-0

1.(cid:1)Musical perception.(cid:1) 2.(cid:1) Musical analysis.(cid:1) 3.(cid:1) Cognition.(cid:1) I.(cid:1) Title.(cid:1) II.(cid:1) Series.

ML3838(cid:1) .Z25(cid:1) 2002

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Printed in the United States of(cid:1)America(cid:1)
on acid-free paper(cid:1)
dem andenken meiner Mutter:
Anneliese Margerite Zbikowski, 1926–1999
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preface

On picking up a book with the title Conceptualizing Music: Cognitive Structure,(cid:1)
Theory, and Analysis,one might reasonably assume that it deals with music cog-
nition and how our knowledge of(cid:1)that discipline can be applied to music theory and(cid:1)
analysis.(cid:1)This book does not do that,(cid:1)or at least not in a simple way.(cid:1)To begin,(cid:1)it does(cid:1)
not have much to say about the fairly large body of(cid:1)research usually placed under the(cid:1)
rubric “music cognition.”(cid:1)This work,(cid:1)having been developed out of(cid:1)music psychol-
ogy and infor(cid:1)med by recent research in the brain sciences and mind sciences,(cid:1)pro-
ceeds by carefully crafted exper(cid:1)iments,(cid:1)which are subjected to closely argued statis-
tical and logical analysis.(cid:1)As practiced by such eminent and able researchers as Carol(cid:1)
Krumhansl,(cid:1)John Sloboda,(cid:1)and David Huron,(cid:1)the study of(cid:1)music cognition has told(cid:1)
us much about how humans process sonic and musical infor(cid:1)mation.(cid:1)
But this book proceeds in a somewhat different way.(cid:1)Drawing on the same body(cid:1)
of(cid:1)research from the brain sciences and mind sciences that shaped studies in music(cid:1)
cognition,(cid:1)it explores how basic cognitive capacities are specified for under(cid:1)stand-
ing music.(cid:1)The project takes inspiration from recent work in linguistics and rhetor(cid:1)ic(cid:1)
by researchers like Ronald Langacker,Gilles Fauconnier,Mark Turner,(cid:1)and George(cid:1)
Lakoff,(cid:1)and it is based on the assumption that musical understanding relies not on(cid:1)
specialized capacities unique to the processing of(cid:1)patterned sound but on the spe-
cialized use of(cid:1)general capacities that humans use to str(cid:1)ucture their under(cid:1)standing(cid:1)
of(cid:1) the everyday world.(cid:1)The methodology,(cid:1)in consequence,(cid:1)relies not on exper(cid:1)i-
mental design and data analysis but on using a broad and quite extensive body of(cid:1)
research to inter(cid:1)pret recurrent tropes of(cid:1) musical understanding.(cid:1) These tropes(cid:1)
involve such things as the importance to musical under(cid:1)standing of(cid:1)relatively small(cid:1)
and compact musical phenomena like “motives,”(cid:1)“themes,”(cid:1)and “chords”;(cid:1)the use of(cid:1)
terms grounded in nonmusical domains(cid:1)—(cid:1)terms like “space”(cid:1)and “depth”—(cid:1)to char-
acter(cid:1)ize musical events;(cid:1)and the reliance on patter(cid:1)ns of(cid:1)logical inference to reason(cid:1)
about music.(cid:1)
The result of(cid:1)this investigation is a theoretical perspective on musical organiza-
tion,(cid:1)but one rather different from what usually counts as “music theory.”(cid:1)To make(cid:1)
sense of(cid:1) this claim requires a bit of(cid:1) explanation about the intellectual context of(cid:1)
music theory,(cid:1)for music theory is,(cid:1)within the rolling seas of(cid:1) humanistic studies,(cid:1)a(cid:1)
viii(cid:1) preface

rather strange fish.(cid:1)Put bluntly,(cid:1)it is clear that much of(cid:1)what music theor(cid:1)y does,(cid:1)as a(cid:1)
discipline,does not count as any sort of(cid:1)theory in moder(cid:1)n scholarship.(cid:1)This is exem-
plified by each of(cid:1)the two distinct but related and inter(cid:1)twined strands that make up(cid:1)
contemporar(cid:1)y music theory.(cid:1)One strand is occupied with pedagogy,the other with(cid:1)
speculative and highly systematic approaches to musical organization.(cid:1)
Music theor(cid:1)y,(cid:1)as it is presented in the classroom,(cid:1)is most often engaged with a(cid:1)
careful and often relentless explication of(cid:1)what,(cid:1)for want of(cid:1)a better ter(cid:1)m,(cid:1)we can call(cid:1)
musical grammar.(cid:1)Consider the following,(cid:1)from Edward Aldwell and Carl Schachter’s(cid:1)
Harmony and Voice Leading:(cid:1)
Like VII⁶, V⁴₃ has 2 as its bass.(cid:1)V⁴₃, (cid:1)in fact,(cid:1)resembles VII6(cid:1)so closely that they are almost(cid:1)
interchangeable chords.(cid:1)The bass of(cid:1)V⁴₃ is a more neutral tone than that of(cid:1)V⁶₅ (or,(cid:1)as(cid:1)
you will see,V⁴₂) and can move convincingly either to 1 or to 3.(cid:1)Consequently,V⁴₃, (cid:1)like(cid:1)
VII⁶ ,(cid:1)forms a natural connection between I and I⁶ and appears very frequently as a(cid:1)
passing chord within an extended tonic.1
The prose and ter(cid:1)minology are impressively dense.(cid:1)But one should not be misled(cid:1)
into thinking that the author(cid:1)s are concer(cid:1)ned only with abstr(cid:1)use compositional(cid:1)
techniques,(cid:1)for immediately after this excer(cid:1)pt Aldwell and Schachter refer to a pas-
sage from an impromptu by Franz Schuber(cid:1)t that illustrates the niceties of(cid:1) voice(cid:1)
leading with which they are concer(cid:1)ned.(cid:1)Their assumption is that the reader is famil-
iar with the music and counts it as typical,(cid:1)and it is this f(cid:1)amiliar(cid:1)ity that provides a(cid:1)
phenomenological anchor for what might appear to be rather thick jargon.(cid:1)If(cid:1)you(cid:1)
know Schubert’s impromptu,(cid:1)or (better yet) can summon it in your sonic imag(cid:1)ina-
tion when reading the example in score,(cid:1)Aldwell and Schachter’s point about the(cid:1)
harmonization of(cid:1)the second scale-step in the bass is not just clear but even obvious.(cid:1)
At the hear(cid:1)t of(cid:1) pedagogical music theor(cid:1)y are familiar or typical examples of(cid:1)
music,the mysteries of(cid:1)which are revealed by a music theor(cid:1)ist (or theor(cid:1)ists) eager to(cid:1)
share the secrets and wonder of(cid:1)this music with other(cid:1)s.(cid:1)As elegant and persuasive as(cid:1)
this approach might seem,(cid:1)it is,(cid:1)within our cur(cid:1)rent cultural climate,(cid:1)more than a lit-
tle unrealistic:(cid:1)music by Schubert and his contemporar(cid:1)ies is often unf(cid:1)amiliar to the(cid:1)
students who read Aldwell and Schachter’s text (or any of(cid:1)a number of(cid:1)similar texts)(cid:1)
and is not typical of(cid:1)the music that resonates through these students’(cid:1)digitized and(cid:1)
hypercommercialized environments.(cid:1)That this should be so is often regarded as(cid:1)
symptomatic of(cid:1) an illness of(cid:1) the late twentieth centur(cid:1)y,(cid:1)an illness that leads to an(cid:1)
insufficient engagement with the g(cid:1)reat traditions of(cid:1) Western culture.(cid:1)For Classical(cid:1)
music (as it is so styled),(cid:1)the antidote is music theory.(cid:1)Music theor(cid:1)y,(cid:1)with its careful(cid:1)
explication of(cid:1)the musical grammar of(cid:1)Mozart and Beethoven and Schubert,(cid:1)thus(cid:1)
becomes the last redoubt against the dissolution of(cid:1)Western culture represented by(cid:1)
a dwindling interest in the music of(cid:1)eighteenth- and nineteenth-centur(cid:1)y Europe.(cid:1)
If,(cid:1)for a moment,(cid:1)we step back from Aldwell and Schachter’s text and generalize(cid:1)
its intent beyond the specific repertoire relative to which it is framed,(cid:1)we might be(cid:1)
able to avoid this rather sanctimonious stance.We could argue that music is a highly(cid:1)
complex and idiosyncratic mode of(cid:1)human communication and that having a knowl-
1.(cid:1) Edward Aldwell and Carl Schachter,(cid:1)Harmony and Voice Leading,(cid:1)2nd ed.(cid:1)(San Diego:(cid:1)Harcourt(cid:1)
Brace Jovanovich,(cid:1)1989),(cid:1)112.(cid:1)
preface ix

edge of(cid:1) the grammar of(cid:1) this mode of(cid:1) communication is essential to its deeper(cid:1)
appreciation,(cid:1)no matter what for(cid:1)m music might take.(cid:1)The argument is a f(cid:1)amiliar(cid:1)
one to me,(cid:1)not the least because I often find myself(cid:1)making it.(cid:1)And yet,(cid:1)something(cid:1)
rings hollow.(cid:1)The grammar that music theor(cid:1)y teaches is unavoidably tied to the(cid:1)
repertoire to which it refers,(cid:1)and just how this is generalized to apply to other reper-
toires is not immediately apparent:(cid:1)I know of(cid:1)no theory text that explains how the(cid:1)
grammar of(cid:1) Schubert’s musical discourse is manifested in the music of,(cid:1)say,(cid:1)John(cid:1)
Coltrane or Pr(cid:1)ince.(cid:1)Given its isolation from contemporar(cid:1)y culture,(cid:1)the music the-
ory of(cid:1)the classroom appears to be little more than a ghost that haunts the echoing(cid:1)
halls of(cid:1)a crumbling cultural empire.(cid:1)
The second strand of(cid:1) music theory partakes of(cid:1) the systematic quality inherent(cid:1)
in grammars but generalizes it away from(cid:1)natural language and toward a free-stand-
ing intellectual constr(cid:1)uct.(cid:1)As an example of(cid:1)this sort of(cid:1)theory,(cid:1)consider the follow-
ing brief(cid:1)passage from David Lewin’s analysis of(cid:1)a section of(cid:1)the opening of(cid:1)Claude(cid:1)
Debussy’s piano prelude Reflets dans l’eau.(cid:1)In this excer(cid:1)pt,(cid:1)X,Y,(cid:1)and Z represent(cid:1)
specific collections ofmusical notes,(cid:1)RI refers to the compound operations retro-
grade and inversion,(cid:1)RICH is a function that effects ser(cid:1)ial transfor(cid:1)mations,(cid:1)and T(cid:1)
refers to transposition:(cid:1)
In measure 10 the music of(cid:1)measure 9 is repeated and extended.(cid:1)The crescendo recurs.(cid:1)
In the melody the repetition gives rise to a rotated for(cid:1)m of(cid:1)Z ,(cid:1)marked “rot Z ”on(cid:1)
1 1
figure 10.10.(cid:1)Rot Z is Bb-Ab-F-Eb;it embeds ser(cid:1)ially the or(cid:1)iginal for(cid:1)m of(cid:1)Y,(cid:1)Ab-F-
1
Eb,(cid:1)and precedes this Y by its overlapping inverse-RI-chained for(cid:1)m Bb-Ab-F.(cid:1)(Bb-Ab-
F is RICH–1(Ab-F-Eb).) This relationship is more or less inherent in the der(cid:1)ivations(cid:1)
of(cid:1)X,Y,(cid:1)T(X),(cid:1)their repetitions,(cid:1)and Z.2
1
It is,(cid:1)of(cid:1)course,(cid:1)something of(cid:1)a challenge to evaluate this passage in isolation.(cid:1)Not(cid:1)
only is it just one par(cid:1)t of(cid:1)a larger analysis,(cid:1)but also it comes late in a book occupied(cid:1)
with various and sundr(cid:1)y applications of(cid:1)formal algebra and mathematical mapping(cid:1)
theory to music.(cid:1)Nonetheless,(cid:1)what should be clear is that more than familiar(cid:1)ity(cid:1)
with Debussy’s prelude is required to make sense of(cid:1) Lewin’s inter(cid:1)pretation of(cid:1) the(cid:1)
passage.(cid:1)The reader must also be f(cid:1)amiliar with a style of(cid:1) abstract thought that is(cid:1)
bound to appear cabalistic to the uninitiated,(cid:1)one in which the transfor(cid:1)mation of(cid:1)
musical entities is at least as impor(cid:1)tant as the entities themselves.(cid:1)For some,the inac-
cessibility of(cid:1)this mode of(cid:1)thought is one of(cid:1)its char(cid:1)ms.(cid:1)For others,(cid:1)it is proof(cid:1)of(cid:1)the(cid:1)
hermeticism and ir(cid:1)relevance of(cid:1)music theory.(cid:1)
Before continuing,(cid:1)I should make clear that I have deep respect for the theor(cid:1)ists(cid:1)
whose work I have cited.(cid:1)I use this work in my teaching and continue to be intr(cid:1)igued(cid:1)
and stimulated by it.(cid:1)I also want to emphasize that these excer(cid:1)pts by no means(cid:1)
reflect all that there is to music theory.(cid:1)I take them as representative of(cid:1)two strands(cid:1)
of(cid:1)thought that are replicated and woven together in all sor(cid:1)ts of(cid:1)different ways to(cid:1)
create the texture of(cid:1)contemporar(cid:1)y theoretical practice.What is important for my(cid:1)
purposes here is that the practice of(cid:1)contemporar(cid:1)y music theory is not like that of(cid:1)
contemporary cultural or social theor(cid:1)y.(cid:1)Instead of(cid:1)probing the cultural or histor(cid:1)ical(cid:1)
2.(cid:1) David Lewin,(cid:1)Generalized Musical Intervals and Transformations(cid:1)(New Haven,(cid:1)Conn.:Yale Univer-
sity Press,(cid:1)1987),(cid:1)234.(cid:1)