New Sounds, New Stories
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Vincent Meelberg · Meelberg Vincent When listeners talk about their listening ex- Vincent Meelberg periences, they often refer to music as if it were a narrative. But can music actually tell a story? Can music be narrative? Traditionally, narrativity is associated with verbal and visual texts, and the mere possibility of musical narrativity is highly debated. In this study, Vincent Meelberg demonstrates that New Sounds, music can indeed be narrative, and that the study of musical narrativity can be very productive. Moreover, Meelberg even makes a stronger claim by contending that contemporary Sounds, Stories New New New Stories music, too, can be narrative. More specifically, Meelberg sug- gests considering contemporary musical narratives as meta- Narrativity in narratives, i.e. narratives that tell the story of the process of narrativization. Contemporary Music Vincent Meelberg (970) studied double bass and music theory at the Rotterdam Conservatory. Afterward, he re- ceived his MA in both Musicology and Philosophy at Utrecht University. He wrote his dissertation on the relation between narrativity and contemporary music while holding a PhD position at Leiden University, Department of Literary Studies. Beside his academic activities he remains active as a double bassist in several jazz groups, as well as a composer. In 2006 Leiden University has initiated a series Leiden Disserta- tions at Leiden University Press. This series affords an opportunity to those who have recently obtained their doctorate to publish the results of their doctoral research so as to ensure a wide distribution among colleagues and the interested public. The dissertations will become available both in printed and in digital versions. Books from this LUP series can be ordered through www.lup.nl. The large majority of Leiden dissertations from 2005 onwards is available digitally on www.dissertation.leidenuniv.nl. LUP leiden university press Meeling_DEF_pixellogo.indd 1 9-5-2006 11:32:34 NEW SOUNDS, NEW STORIES Narrativity in Contemporary Music Leiden University Press is an imprint of Amsterdam University Press Cover design: Randy Lemaire, Utrecht Cover illustration: Photo © Bert Meelberg isbn 978 90 8728 002 4 nur 664 © Leiden University Press, 2006 All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this book may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the written permission of both the copyright owner and the author of the book. New Sounds, New Stories Narrativity in Contemporary Music PROEFSCHRIFT ter verkrijging van de graad van Doctor aan de Universiteit Leiden, op gezag van de Rector Magnificus Dr. D.D. Breimer, hoogleraar in de faculteit der Wiskunde en Natuurwetenschappen en die der Geneeskunde, volgens besluit van het College voor Promoties te verdedigen op donderdag 1 juni 2006 klokke 15.15 uur door Vincent Meelberg geboren te Lemgo, Duitsland, in 1970 Promotiecommissie Promotores: Prof. Dr. E.J. van Alphen Prof. Dr. R. de Groot (Universiteit van Amsterdam) Referent: Prof. Dr. L. Kramer (Fordham University) Overige Leden: Dr. M.A. Cobussen Prof. Dr. M. van Crevel Prof. Dr. M. Delaere (Katholieke Universiteit Leuven) Dr. M.J.A. Kasten Dr. P.W.J. Verstraten Die Zeit ist das Element der Erzählung, wie sie das element des Lebens ist, - unlösbar damit verbunden, wie mit den Körpern im Raum. Sie is auch das Element der Musik, als welche die Zeit mißt und gliedert, sie kurzweilig und kostbar auf einmal macht: verwandt hierin, wie gesagt, der Erzählung, die ebenfalls (und anders als das auf einmal leuchtend gegenwärtige und nur als Körper an die Zeit gebundene Werk der bildenden Kunst) nur als ein Nacheinander, nicht anders denn als ein Ablaufendes sich zu geben weiß, und selbst, wenn sie versuchen sollte, in jedem Augenblick ganz da zu sein, der Zeit zu ihrer Erscheinung bedarf. Thomas Mann, Der Zauberberg (1924) CONTENTS Preface 1 1 Grasp 13 Intelligible Sounds 13 | Sensible Unities 18 | Serial Challenges 23 | Comprehensible Surfaces 28 | Narrative Structuring 32 2 Tales 39 A Narratological Trichotomy 39 | Musical Text 44 | The Uttering Body in Music 45 | Geistreiche Erzähler 51 | Musical Story 59 | Spacing Music 64 | Performance as Focalization 66 | Electro-Acoustic Focalization 71 | Musical Fabula and Musical Events 73 | The Characteristics of a Musical Actor 83 | Duration in Minimal and Other Music 86 3 Tense 95 Musical Time, Musical Tense? 95 | The Discrete Musical Past Versus the Continuous Sounding Present 104 | A Past Present in Rothko Chapel 112 | The Marking of Time 124 | The Narrator’s Presence as Narrative’s Present 130 | The Shape of Things to Come 136 4 Ends 147 Longing for Linearity 147 | Plotting Atonality 152 | Moment, Repetition, Endlessness 160 | The Use of an Ending 168 5 Moved 175 A Psychoanalytical Perspective on Music 175 | The Affected Listener 178 | Traumatic Listening? 185 6 Themes 195 Narrative Doubts 195 | Petals’ Possible Stories 200 | A Narrative on Narrativity 205 Closure 219 Bibliography 225 index 235 Acknowledgements 247 Summary 249 Samenvatting (Summary in Dutch) 253 Curriculum Vitae 257 PREFACE Although the world may not actually be made up of stories, it can be said that, as soon as there are people, there are stories. As is argued by theorists such as David Herman (2003b), human beings have a basic inclination to interpret the world around them in a narrative manner. Narrative, i.e. the representation of a temporal development, which consists of a succession of events, is an aspect of many things that are encountered in life. Therefore, these theorists argue, narratives are paramount in order to grasp the world in which the human subject lives. Since music is a temporal cultural expression, it would seem to make sense to assume that music has a narrative aspect as well. Nevertheless, the notion of musical narrativity is highly disputed. And indeed, verbal narrative is able to represent many phenomena, ideas, and views that cannot be represented in music in the same straightforward manner. For instance, in verbal narrative it is possible to posit an unreliable narrator. A verbal narrative can represent a character’s thoughts, or retell historical events. And music, because it lacks the referential qualities language has, is not capable of doing this. Therefore, as is argued by for instance Jean-Jacques Nattiez (1990) and Werner Wolf (2002), music cannot be narrative. But is it really the case that none of these characteristics can be attributed to music? And if not, does that necessarily imply that music thus cannot be narrative? My contention is that music has more narrative traits than these critics assume. Moreover, I maintain that an object does not have to have the exact same characteristics a verbal narrative has in order to be considered as narrative. Rather, without specifying its medium, I define narrative as the representation of a temporal development. And I will assert that many musical works can be considered as narrative under this definition. This approach differs from those applied by other theorists who understand music in narrative terms. Anthony Newcomb and Gregory Karl, for instance, focus on the concept of musical plot. Carolyn Abbate, on the other hand, emphasizes the notion of voice in those exceptional instances where she does acknowledge that music can be narrative. And although these conceptions have their merits, I hope to show that my approach allows for a more precise articulation of the nature and characteristics of musical narrativity. In this study I primarily focus on the narrative analysis of contemporary, instrumental musical works, both acoustic, electro- acoustic, and electronic. Furthermore, the object of analysis is music as 1 2 PREFACE it is performed, i.e. a specific performance of a particular work. As I will explain in chapter 2, each performance of the same (narrative) musical piece results in a new musical narrative. Consequently, in my analyses I always specify which performance, that is, which recording, of a musical piece is used as my object.1 Nevertheless, in the case of acoustic musical compositions, I do include printed musical examples. For, apart from the joy that reading music might provide, the musical examples function as indices to specific musical moments that are discussed in the analysis. But bear in mind that the analyses in this study are not about these visual representations. The analyses are about the sounding music, of which the score is only an incomplete graphic abstraction. Besides being prescriptions for performance, scores necessarily are reductions of the object under analysis. As a consequence, I have refrained from providing printed examples entirely when electro-acoustic and electronic works are concerned, since, in these cases, the score is even more incomplete than those of acoustic works. The reason why I have chosen to concentrate on the narrative aspect of contemporary music in particular is twofold. Firstly, in doing so, I am able to articulate narrativity in a precise manner. Since many contemporary musical works question or problematize the notion of musical narrativity, the analysis of these works might be the key to identifying the limits of musical narrativity. Thus, although the main focus is on contemporary instrumental music, the results obtained in this study hold for all music: instrumental and vocal, classical and popular, ancient and contemporary. Secondly, I argue that, in assuming a narrative listening stance, the listener’s possibilities to comprehend contemporary music might be enriched.2 As I remarked above, the inclination to interpret the world in a narrative manner is a basic disposition that human beings share. Therefore, I expect that listening to contemporary, atonal music while assuming a narrative listening stance might lead to a greater degree of comprehension of this kind of 1 The choice of particular performances was determined both by pragmatic and canonical considerations.