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The Concept of Disunity and Musical Analysis

The Concept of Disunity and Musical Analysis DISUNITY AND MUSICAL ANALYSIS Recently, unity and disunity have been much discussed in the context of music analysis. We should be grateful to Robert P. Morgan for continuing the debate. However, rather than directly engaging the often subtle formulations of various theorists, his article `The Concept of Unity and Musical Analysis' oversimplifies, misrepresents, and sometimes outright falsifies what several theorists have been saying. Despite what Morgan claims, for example, none of the analyses he criticises states that the pieces under investigation lack unity, but only (a weaker yet richer claim) that they have aspects that can profitably be understood as disunifying. One problem with Morgan's discussion is that he does not directly say what he means by `unity'. His meaning seems to shift throughout the article, no doubt because the theorists he examines do not use these terms in consistent ways. If he does not define `unity', then he surely does not define `disunity' either. It is hard to follow some of his arguments because of a lack of clarity over how he uses basic terms. It seems to me that Morgan is thinking of disunity as the absence of unity, but if so I believe he is http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Music Analysis Wiley

The Concept of Disunity and Musical Analysis

Kramer, Jonathan D.
Music Analysis , Volume 23 (2‐3) – Jul 1, 2004
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Publisher
Wiley
Copyright
Copyright © 2004 Wiley Subscription Services, Inc., A Wiley Company
ISSN
0262-5245
eISSN
1468-2249
DOI
10.1111/j.0262-5245.2004.00210.x
Publisher site
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Abstract

DISUNITY AND MUSICAL ANALYSIS Recently, unity and disunity have been much discussed in the context of music analysis. We should be grateful to Robert P. Morgan for continuing the debate. However, rather than directly engaging the often subtle formulations of various theorists, his article `The Concept of Unity and Musical Analysis' oversimplifies, misrepresents, and sometimes outright falsifies what several theorists have been saying. Despite what Morgan claims, for example, none of the analyses he criticises states that the pieces under investigation lack unity, but only (a weaker yet richer claim) that they have aspects that can profitably be understood as disunifying. One problem with Morgan's discussion is that he does not directly say what he means by `unity'. His meaning seems to shift throughout the article, no doubt because the theorists he examines do not use these terms in consistent ways. If he does not define `unity', then he surely does not define `disunity' either. It is hard to follow some of his arguments because of a lack of clarity over how he uses basic terms. It seems to me that Morgan is thinking of disunity as the absence of unity, but if so I believe he is

Journal

Music Analysis – Wiley

Published: Jul 1, 2004

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