Towards a definition of prolongation

Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................................................ 1

INITIAL CHARACTERIZATION OF PROLONGATION ............................................................................................ 1

A. PROLONGATION AS THE ‘REMAINING AT WORK’ OF A MUSICAL ELEMENT ......................................................................... 1 B. PROLONGED MUSICAL ELEMENTS AND THEIR PROLONGATION ....................................................................................... 2 C. THE CONTINUITY OF PROLONGATION ........................................................................................................................ 2 D. THE RELATION OF PROLONGATION TO THE MUSICAL SURFACE ....................................................................................... 3 E. PROLONGATION AND THE IDENTITY CONDITION .......................................................................................................... 3 F. CONSEQUENT AND ANTICIPATORY PROLONGATION ..................................................................................................... 4 G. PROLONGATION AND TONAL VERSUS POST-TONAL MUSIC ............................................................................................ 4 H. LEVELS OF PROLONGATION .................................................................................................................................... 5

DEFINITIONS OF PROLONGATION .................................................................................................................... 6

THE FIRST DEFINITION: PROLONGATION AS MUSICAL WEIGHT ............................................................................................ 6 a. The meaning and structure of musical weight .......................................................................................... 6 b. Musical weight, musical structure and musical direction .......................................................................... 7 c. The predecessors of musical weight: consonance, stability and salience .................................................. 7 c.1. Consonance and dissonance ................................................................................................................... 7 c.2. Stability and instability ............................................................................................................................ 8 c.3. Prolongation in post-tonal music and the notion of salience .................................................................. 9 c.4. Finally: musical weight .......................................................................................................................... 10 d. Two main objections to the definition of prolongation in terms of musical weight ................................ 10 Objection 1: the identity condition ............................................................................................................. 10 Objection 2: musical weight is too local ...................................................................................................... 11

THE SECOND DEFINITION: PROLONGATION AS RETURN TO THE PROLONGED MUSICAL ELEMENT ............................................. 11 a. Version 1 .................................................................................................................................................. 11 b. Version 2 and 3 ........................................................................................................................................ 13

THE THIRD DEFINITION: PROLONGATION AS EXPECTATION .............................................................................................. 13 THE FOURTH DEFINITION: PROLONGATION AS COMPATIBILITY ......................................................................................... 15 THE FIFTH DEFINITION: PROLONGATION AS FEELING ...................................................................................................... 17

a. The need for openness in the definition of prolongation ......................................................................... 17 b. The need for a mental state of the listener ............................................................................................. 19 c. Feeling as the right kind of mental state ................................................................................................. 19 d. Feeling and musical analysis ................................................................................................................... 20

WORKS CITED ....................................................................................................................................................... 22

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