Ambiguity as an Essential Aesthetic Principle in Musical Listening: an aporetic relation between discontinuity and coherence in Stravinsky’s Symphonies of Wind Instruments
Anders Bonde · VBN Forskningsportal (Aalborg Universitet) · 2006
Stravinsky’s Symphonies of Wind Instruments represents a remarkable example of discontinuity. Here, a traditional sense of continuous development is troubled by a sequence of segments, which at first sight seems non-related. However, the noticeable discontinuous gestures appear only as a superficial feature. In the compositional structure, there are several indications of connection and development which can be explored. Hence a ‘continuity-after-all’ comprehension has been an important principle guiding most commentators, from Edward Cone’s threefold conception of ‘stratification’, ‘interlocking’, and ‘synthesis’ (Cone, 1962: 19f), to Jonathan Kramer’s accentuation of discontinuity as a ‘profound musical experience’ with the ‘proportional lengths of moments as the one remaining principle of formal coherence’ (Kramer, 1978: 182). Though, the general attempt to reveal the music’s ‘secret connections’ in the ‘disguise’ of discontinuity implies an either-or viewpoint, which tends to overlook the fact that the musical progression suggests mutually contradistinctive impressions and, as such, is essentially ambiguous. Thus, in this paper it is not my intention to assert that the Symphonies in truth is continuous, if we only expand our musical thought beyond a superficial examination. Rather, I want to emphasize the assumption that the important musical experience is to be found in the ambiguity itself, caused by an aporetic relation between the apparent discontinuous gestures in the immediate listening and a sense of coherence in the subsequent musical reflection.