The Polysemantic Nature of Music. A Hermeneutical Perspective

Abstract

In this short essay, we will discuss how the concept of the leftover can be applied with interesting results in music. In fact, we find that the idea of the leftover underlies musical discourse in three ways, which are all intertwined with one another, while maintaining their own specificity. These three declinations define the leftover as a synonym of surplus, renewal, and imperfection. Firstly, the leftover can be intended not in a pejorative acceptation, as common sense would suggest, but rather in a positive and constructive one. In this regard, the leftover is seen as a surplus or abundance. The development of this idea starts off with some brief reflections on the relation between music and language and on the impossibility of an “equal” translation of the former to the latter. We hold that by trying to put music into words, what is left behind is an excess of meaning. Our second interpretation of the concept—leftover as renewal—is a partial consequence of the first abovementioned connotation, inasmuch as every reutilization of something implies that the very object of renewal possesses an excess of unexpressed possibilities. In this section, we show how two composers, A. Schönberg with his Suite Op. 25, and M. Ravel with La Valse, have utilized ancient forms—baroque dances, and waltz, respectively—to contain extremely novel musical contents. In addition, we hint at how the evolution of the sonata form can be interpreted in light of this second interpretation of the leftover and discuss how a renewal can happen at an even more abstract level, by comparing the harmonic structures of two of the most famous cycles in classical music, i.e., J.S. Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier and F. Chopin’s Preludes. Finally, the third reading relates the leftover to the etymological meaning of imperfection, i.e. something which is left unfinished. From this standpoint, by ideally recomposing the history of improvisation, we trace its origin in the baroque practice of figured bass, showing how it contains principles common to contemporary jazz performance habits. To conclude, we come back to Bach’s Preludes and Fugues, readapted by pianist Brad Mehldau, as a clear example of all of these three acceptations of the leftover.