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Thus far, we have seen that musical repetition can occur in different sizes and over different time-spans, from local tolarge-scale. We have also seen that smaller repetitions can be "nested" inside of larger ones: Notice, for instance, howthe section from Beethoven's Bagatelle has internal repetition of short patterns and longer phrases, and also eventually recurs in its entirety.
In popular music--as well as children's songs--repetition is often literal and direct. This makes the music morereadily accessible and immediately intelligible.
For instance, in this folk song sung by Pete Seeger, a short musical idea is repeated over and over exactly thesame--sixteen times in a mere thirty seconds. On top of the quickly cycling music, Seeger presents a rapid fire list ofanimal names...
What distinguishes classical music from most pop music is that, in classical music, the repetition is more frequently varied and transformed . This makes the repetition flexible, capable of assuming of many forms and moods. WhenElizabeth Barrett Browning writes "How do I love thee--let me count the ways/I love thee to the depth andbreadth and height my soul can reach...I love thee to the level of every day's most quiet need....I love thee freely, Ilove thee purely," she is using varied repetition to make her point. Similarly, one of the guiding principles ofart-music is repetition without redundancy . The music will repeat its main ideas, but constantly in new ways.
In the popular "South Beach Diet," dieters are at a first restricted to a very limited regimen of foods: no bread, fruit, alchohol or sugar. The challenge of the diet isto create a varied menu from such a circumscribed list of ingredients. Otherwise, the dieter will begin to stray. So, a lot ofeffort and inventiveness goes into designing recipes that makes the daily staples lively andtasty.
In classical music, the goal is similarly to maximize the minimum . That is, the goal is to take a limited number of ingredients and create the greatest possiblevariety. A composer such as Beethoven or Bartok can take just a few basic elements and create the musical equivalent of a complete meal of soup,main course, salad and dessert--all with distinctive flavors, so that you sometimes can't even recognize the presence ofthe same ingredients in every recipe.
Let us study the concept of varied repetition in several works.
The basic pattern of Bach's C-Major Invention is the following:
This basic pattern is repeated over and over again throughout the piece, but in constantly new forms.
For instance, Bach plays the basic pattern in different registers :
Bach begins the basic pattern on different pitches:
Bach turns the pattern upside down:
Bach fragments the theme, dwelling on different segments of it.
In the next sample, he takes the first four notes and plays them at half-speed
Here, he takes the last four notes, and extends them into an exciting rising figure
He changes the groupings of the basic pattern, sometimes having several versions of the entire pattern in succession:
Finally, he changes how the pattern is echoed between the hands. Sometimes, the left hand leads:
Sometimes, the right hand leads. Notice, in this example, that Bach flips the basic pattern upside down and right sideup in alternation.
Now, please listen to the Bach: Invention in C-Major in its entirety.
All of these flexible repetitions are beautifully coordinated, so that the piece creates a clear opening,middle, climax and ending. The fact that the basic pattern occurs in every measure creates consistency . The fact that it rarely occurs the same way twice contributes to the music'smomentum and dynamism. The C-Major Invention is thus a case study in repetition without redundancy.
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