0.9 Overall destiny

In Musical Form , we compared the layout of a composition to the topography of a city. Thismetaphor was helpful for illustrating such concepts as unity and contrast and the boundary between sections. However, it has animportant limitation: You are free to enter a city from any direction and explore it at will, exiting wherever and wheneveryou choose. However, there is only one way to enter a composition--the beginning--and one way to exit--the end. It ismusic's time-dependent nature that enables it to be dramatic. Now we will refine our conception of form to highlight thistime-dependent quality: We will do so by focusing on the work's overall destiny. Just as in a narrative, such a novel or film,the overall destiny of a composition--its progress from beginning to end--is crucial to the music's dramatic andexpressive intent. In a narrative, we follow the twists and turns of the plot as the story progresses to its ultimateoutcome. Similarly, all of the myriads of details in a composition are in the service of a larger trajectory.

Both narratives and musical forms can be grouped according to three basic destinies. The first is a strong round-trip . In Dr. Seuss' famous children's story "The Cat in the Hat," a mother leaves her children alone at home for the day. When she departs, thehouse is clean and orderly. The Cat in the Hat shows up, and proceeds to create an extravagant mess. Belongings and a particularly vocal fish are strewn madly all over the place. Then, just as the mother's feet arevisible walking down the path, the Cat in the Hat uses a magic cleaner-up machine to restore the house to order. By the timethe mother walks in the door, the Cat-in-the-Hat has disappeared and the house is exactly as it was, with nothing out of place.No matter what has happened in the interim, the house has returned to its original state.

In musical terms, a strong round-trip describes a piece that returns to its starting point with security andconfidence.

John Cheever's story The Swimmer tells of a suburban man decides to return home from work by swimmingthrough all of his neighbors' pools along the way. He walks from pool to pool, visiting a former mistress and other emblemsof a bitter, frustrated life. At each pool, he glides through the water, has a brief encounter, and continues on his way. Heis a suburban Ulysses, completing his epic day's journey. However, when he arrives home, there is a note pinned to thedoor from his wife: She has taken the kids and furniture and left him. The swimmer has made it home; but too much haschanged. His return is ambivalent and insecure. This is a weak round-trip .