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Unlimited Replays: Video Games and Classical Music by William Gibbons (review)

Unlimited Replays: Video Games and Classical Music by William Gibbons (review) 110 American Music, Spring 2020 Unlimited Replays: Video Games and Classical Music. By William Gibbons. New York: Oxford University Press, 2018. ISBN: 978-0-190-26526-7. Paperback. Pp. 196. $29.95. When I come across a comparison between video games and another entertain - ment medium, I immediately think of the foreword to “The Sound Issue” of Kill Screen magazine. Chris Dahlen, then editor in chief, made a bold, evocative claim about the performative relationship between music and gaming: “All apologies to those who think videogames sic [ ] have grown more and more like the movies, but no matter how cinematic they become, the form with which they have the most in common is music. Both forms marry performance and production, gut and theory, and repetition and spontaneity. Neither one is complete until the work gets a player, and a classic will endure a million renditions, as the performers move from practice, to mastery, to reinvention.” The last sentence of Dahlen’s insight points to the core argument of Unlimited Replays, by William Gibbons. But Dahlen’s endpoint is merely Gibbons’s point of departure. Gibbons asks his reader: If we accept that we “play” and “replay” both music and games (a line of thought http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png American Music University of Illinois Press

Unlimited Replays: Video Games and Classical Music by William Gibbons (review)

American Music , Volume 38 (1) – Apr 3, 2020

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Publisher
University of Illinois Press
ISSN
1945-2349

Abstract

110 American Music, Spring 2020 Unlimited Replays: Video Games and Classical Music. By William Gibbons. New York: Oxford University Press, 2018. ISBN: 978-0-190-26526-7. Paperback. Pp. 196. $29.95. When I come across a comparison between video games and another entertain - ment medium, I immediately think of the foreword to “The Sound Issue” of Kill Screen magazine. Chris Dahlen, then editor in chief, made a bold, evocative claim about the performative relationship between music and gaming: “All apologies to those who think videogames sic [ ] have grown more and more like the movies, but no matter how cinematic they become, the form with which they have the most in common is music. Both forms marry performance and production, gut and theory, and repetition and spontaneity. Neither one is complete until the work gets a player, and a classic will endure a million renditions, as the performers move from practice, to mastery, to reinvention.” The last sentence of Dahlen’s insight points to the core argument of Unlimited Replays, by William Gibbons. But Dahlen’s endpoint is merely Gibbons’s point of departure. Gibbons asks his reader: If we accept that we “play” and “replay” both music and games (a line of thought

Journal

American MusicUniversity of Illinois Press

Published: Apr 3, 2020

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