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NARRATIVE ARCHETYPES: A CRITIQUE, THEORY, AND METHOD OF NARRATIVE ANALYSIS

NARRATIVE ARCHETYPES: A CRITIQUE, THEORY, AND METHOD OF NARRATIVE ANALYSIS rative is a transposed reflection of literary narrative, and a sibling model in which the two media share a common foundation but varying manifestations. The descendant model results in insuperable difficulties, since it is undermined by qualities that are apparently critical to literary narrative but that are lacking or deficient in music, particularly its lack of semantic specificity and the uncertain application of literary concepts like character, plot, narrator, and action. This model leads to a preoccupation with programmatic music and requires one to negotiate the tenuous bond between program and musical syntax. It may also lead to a desire to authenticate a “correct” interpretation in order to render it analytically manageable. I will argue that the more productive model with respect to music is the sibling model. If narrative is understood as an ideal structure, a way of articulating the dynamics and possible outcomes of conflict or interaction between elements, then many of the difficulties attached to the descendant model do not apply. Music has its own syntactic potentialities, its own ways of manifesting conflict and interaction. A theory of musical narrative that recognizes the different languages and organizing principles of literature and music would not be http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Journal of Music Theory Duke University Press

NARRATIVE ARCHETYPES: A CRITIQUE, THEORY, AND METHOD OF NARRATIVE ANALYSIS

Almen, Byron
Journal of Music Theory , Volume 47 (1) – Jan 1, 2003
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Publisher
Duke University Press
Copyright
Copyright 2003 by Yale University
ISSN
0022-2909
eISSN
1941-7497
DOI
10.1215/00222909-47-1-1
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

rative is a transposed reflection of literary narrative, and a sibling model in which the two media share a common foundation but varying manifestations. The descendant model results in insuperable difficulties, since it is undermined by qualities that are apparently critical to literary narrative but that are lacking or deficient in music, particularly its lack of semantic specificity and the uncertain application of literary concepts like character, plot, narrator, and action. This model leads to a preoccupation with programmatic music and requires one to negotiate the tenuous bond between program and musical syntax. It may also lead to a desire to authenticate a “correct” interpretation in order to render it analytically manageable. I will argue that the more productive model with respect to music is the sibling model. If narrative is understood as an ideal structure, a way of articulating the dynamics and possible outcomes of conflict or interaction between elements, then many of the difficulties attached to the descendant model do not apply. Music has its own syntactic potentialities, its own ways of manifesting conflict and interaction. A theory of musical narrative that recognizes the different languages and organizing principles of literature and music would not be

Journal

Journal of Music Theory – Duke University Press

Published: Jan 1, 2003

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