1.10 Listening gallery: overall destiny

Listen to the following examples. How would you describe the overall destiny? Choose "strong round-trip" if the work endswith an unequivocal return to its starting point. Choose "weak round-trip" if the end is an incomplete, insecure or moretenuous return. Choose "one-way progression" if the music ends in a significantly different way than it began.

Among the examples are several ambiguous ones. The distinction between a strong round-trip and a one-way progression is anemphatic one. However, the "weak round-trip" is a greyer category, midway between the two extremes: ambivalent about itsreturn, but not decisive enough to have moved completely away. The distinction between this middle category and the extremeones is not always clear-cut. Consider each example carefully and be sure to come to your own conclusions: Wrestling withambiguity is an important feature of analysis and interpretation. When it is appropriate, the answer key carefullyexplores competing points-of-views. One of the telling features of the ambiguous examples is that, in order to argue a position,a deeper knowledge and more thoughtful hearing of the whole score is required. Thus, using the overall destiny as a starting point gradually draws you into thecontent of the music.

FURTHER LISTENING: Schubert's song "Der Doppelganger" and Hugo Wolf's song "Verlasse Magdlein" are 19th-century examples of weak roundtrips. In each case, the music's overall destiny potently reflects the text. Mel Powell's "String Quartet" is a modern example of a one-way progression. The composer described the piece as a "ball of yarn gradually unfurling." The single movement quartet begins with dense, turbulent activity in which the four players play independently. It gradually works itself towards a single line melody--which the composer playfully called "Jewish boogie-woogie"--played in unison by the quartet.