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Melody

In Shannon and Weaver's "Mathematical Theory of Communication", Weaver gives a wonderfulquote from Arthur Eddington from "The nature of the physical world":

"Suppose that we were asked to arrange the following in two categories -distance, mass, electric force, entropy, beauty, melody. I think there are thestrongest grounds for placing entropy alongside beauty and melody, and notwith the first three. Entropy is only found when the parts are viewed inassociation, and it is by viewing or hearing the parts in association that beautyand melody are discerned. All three are features of arrangement."

Weaver then comments that he believes Eddington would also allow the inclusion of"meaning" along with beauty and melody (this is particularly interesting since Shannon - inthe main part of the book - explicitly excludes discussion about meaning, only concentratingon information).

Both meaning and melody areinteresting me at the moment.This morning I heard this veryfamous melody of Mozart. It iscaptivating - and I found myselfasking "why?"

D'Indy has a similar attitude tomelody as he does to tonality(which I blogged about

here: http://dailyimprovisation.blogspot.com/2012/01/vincent-dindy-and-breath-of-music.html). D'Indy highlights the relationships between melody, rhythm and harmony, buthe generally sees in melodic phrasing a tightening - a making of effort - and a relaxingmovement (repos), much in the same way as the ascent up the cycle of 5ths and descentdown it produces a 'lightening' and 'darkening'. I think there's something in this, but I don'tfind it as satisfactory an explanation as his thoughts about tonality.

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My feeling on hearing the melody from the Mozart piano concerto is clearly one of 'effortmaking' and 'repose', but more fundamentally than that, it grabs my attention. It is this'attention grabbing' - that melody acts as a thread by which the music can be traced, both asit happens and in my mind, which fascinates me most. I am wondering whether this is anaspect of 'attachment'.

Shannon talks of the statistical variances of signals and the importance of Markov processes..he uses melody as an example. But seeing it as a Markov process doesn't account for the factthat the melody would have no coherence if each successive signal didn't become meaningfulto me. And in being meaningful, I believe that it may be a manifestation of a sensual processwhich becomes fundamental to my viability as I listen: I have a stake in what happens.Mozart knows what it is to have a stake in what happens, and knows what to make happen inorder for us to have a stake in it.

But then I think about this short piece by Webern:

There is a melody there too. But for many people listening to it, the experience of'attachment' that I described for the Mozart will not be the same. There is something aboutthe sensual productions here which may indeed repel. But for others (perhaps those whoknow the music), this is equally beautiful. Just as with the Mozart, we hang on every note,every articulation - a performance is special and meaningful.

The question in all this is "what is the difference between the listeners that the attachmentto the melody is different?" That's a question for which I feel myself tentatively edgingtowards a proposal.

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1 comment:@njhoughton said...

Terrific post Mark. I used a metaphor of innovation as a virtuoso performance and youremphasis on melody and performance resonated with me ... chrz Neil

11 February 2012 at 21:45

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