Music Theory Southeast
14th Annual Meeting
Friday, March 3 –Saturday, March 4, 2006
ABSTRACTS
Parsimonious
Voice-Leading in Debussy: the Fêtes Movement from the Nocturnes
Michael Baker, Indiana
University
In his article "Moving Beyond Neo-Riemannian Triads," Adrian Childs proposes a transformational model for parsimonious voice-leading between seventh chords. His discussion focuses on set class 4-27 [0258], the half-diminished and dominant seventh chord. As Richard Cohn points out, set-class 4-27, along with 3-11 (the consonant triad) and 6-34 (the mystic chord) represent minimum deviations from a symmetrical division of the octave, allowing these sets to partake in parsimonious voice-leading.
Childs mentions that "initial work applying the theories of neo-Riemannian triadic transformations has focused primarily on the late nineteenth-century chromatic repertoire, particularly the operas of Richard Wagner. While the analytical insights provided have proven rich and stimulating, a fundamental problem has also arisen: the composers whose works seem best suited for neo-Riemannian analysis [Wagner, Franck, Richard Strauss and their contemporaries] rarely limited their harmonic vocabulary to simple triads." The same can be said for the harmonic world of Claude Debussy, a composer not particularly regarded for his skill in voice-leading between chords.
In this paper I will examine an excerpt from Fêtes, the second of Debussy's Nocturnes for Orchestra. Specifically, I will show how application of recent developments in neo-Riemannian theory can illustrate parsimonious voice-leading within a specific family of seventh chords. After a brief discussion of two models of parsimonious voice-leading, I will introduce a new transformational network that effectively illustrates the unique way in which voice-leading occurs between chords in this work.
Matthew Boyer, Indiana University
The surface of Classical music is heterogeneous, featuring rapid and often
dramaticalterations in style. Since the publication of Leonard Ratners Classic
Music in 1980, topics have emerged as a valuable means to characterize
these kaleidoscopic shifts. The music of Mozart is exceptionally rich
in topical variety, and topical pairs capture a uniquetype of stylistic
change found in Mozarts music. Topical pairing is distinct from mere
succession or juxtaposition; it consists of the varied repetition of a passage
in a newtopical guise. In such a succession, thematic, motivic, and other
salient features of a passage are retained, while other parameters are modified
to effect a topical change. The resultant topical pair is heard as a whole,
binding the music into a single formal unit. Mozart strategically manipulates
these paired thematic groups to expressively shape larger expanses of music.
The return of the first half of a topical pair has implicative strength;
it generates expectation for the return of second half of the pair. With
this expectancy comes the possibility for denial, postponement, and fulfillment,
inviting a hermeneutic reading of Mozarts treatment of pairs across large-scale
formal designs. This presentation will draw upon a number of examples, particularly
from the firstmovement of the piano concerto K. 503.
Direct Stepwise Modulation and its Dramatic and Structural Roles in Frank Loessers Songs
Michael Buchler, Florida State University
The notion that modulationespecially the abrupt variety
that cannot escape our perceptionacts as a dramatic agent in art song hardly
seems controversial. When such modulations occur in musical theater works,
however, they are frequently motivated bysomewhat mundane concerns, such
as adjusting the range for various singers or signifying choreographic changes
during dance numbers. Steering clear of merely utilitarian functions, this
talk will focus on three distinct ways that Frank Loesser employed abrupt
modulation to varied dramatic effect in Luck be a Lady, My Time of Day,
and How to Succeed. The first two songs are from the musical Guys and
Dolls (1950); the third is the
opening number from How to Succeed in Business without Really
Trying (1961).Each
song modulates up by step, and each modulation is harmonically and motivically
foreshadowed. That, however, is where the similarities end, as all three
modulations fulfill verydifferent dramatic goals, respectively portraying
situational anxiety, gravity, and whimsy. My talk will begin with a brief
reading of Luck be a Lady that focuses on modulation as a dramatic intensifier.
I will then contrast the rather shallow and soulless corporate ascendancy
metaphorically portrayed by How to Succeed with the far more profound sense
of rebirth that Sky Masterson conveys in My Time of Day, and I will suggest
ways to tweak our analytical methodologies to reflect these interpretive
differences.
Temporality and Process in the Music of Grard Grisey
Huey-Meei Chen, Columbia University
Grisey was one of the founders of the ensemble Lltinraire in
1970s Paris. The ensembles guiding principle was the search for a natural
expression of sound, wherein the sound itselfin its various acoustical propertieswould
be the driving element of the compositional process. The term spectral
music was coined by Hugues Dufourt in his 1979 article Musique Spectrale to
denote this type of composition, which derives its material from natural
sonic phenomena. Most spectral composers are more concerned with aspects
of harmony and timbre, in part because spectral, by definition, refers
to the range of frequencies of sound waves. This data can be obtained and
studied by means of scientific technology--sonogram analysisand then transcribed
in a score as compositional material such as pitches and harmony. Therefore,
the distinction between harmony and timbre are blurred. Grisey, on
the other hand, explicitly expresses his interest in the temporal domain
of music. Conceiving sound in its relation to temporality, his compositional
concern is with shaping the evolution of sound over time and ensuring that
the listener can perceive the internal content of sound in time. The
temporal process that underlies the evolution of sound in spectral composition
emerges as an important component of compositional strategy. My paper
will explore the temporal domain in the music of Grard Grisey, specifically
his concepts of le temps dilat (the dilatation of time) and temporal
compression and expansion. These elements are central to Griseys compositional
aesthetic, for the process of their evolution and transformation over time
creates musical form.
Adrian Childs, Uniiversity of Georgia
This paper examines properties of the set classes 415 [0146] and 429 [0137] that accrue from their unique all-interval property (they contain each of the six non-trivial interval classes precisely once). The chords are first defined in terms of their ability to partition the set of interval classes into three pairs, based on their non-overlapping presentation. The uniqueness of the two available partitioning schemes is proved, followed by a discussion of their implications. The complement-union property of the all-interval tetrachords (hereafter, AITs) is related to these partitions.
Consideration of the partitions naturally suggests an examination of situations in which two AITs share one interval-class dyad (that is, they share two or more common tones). An individual AIT is found to share two or more common tones with 18 others, including chords of all four AIT qualities. A transformational labeling system is proposed, followed by a close exploration of the various categories of transformation that emerge. (An affinity between AIT common-tone transformations and octatonicism, beyond the scope of the paper, is also noted.)
The paper closes with several musical examples, drawn from the music of
Elliott Carter (for whom AITs are iconic) and others. The transformational
labeling system is used to describe various common-tone relations in both
melodic and harmonic strata.
Illuminating the Middleground in late-Renaissance Polyphony
Seth Coluzzi, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Music scholars have long struggled to find an effective means by which to explain structure in early music. The majority of these attempts, while proving well-equipped in dealing with certain dimensions of the music, fall short in accounting for the music on all levels and, therefore, fail as fully-operative, normative structural models for pre-tonal music. The general shortcoming of these analytical models lies in their inability to show completely how the foreground and background relate to and are mediated by the middleground of the musical structure, thus leaving a gap in the progression from surface to large scale.
In my paper, I propose an analytical methodology for music of the late-sixteenth century that is fully comprehensive in accounting for musical structure and text, and is historically responsible in its approach. The main aspect of this model dealt with here is the role of the structural middleground in establishing and prolonging the pitches of the fundamental descent while also conveying a large-scale directional impetus from modal instability to closure. In most cases, this is achieved specifically through the process of modal mixture, whereby the underlying mode will be temporarily displaced by other modal contexts throughout the course of a piece.
Luca Marenzios madrigal ComՏ dolce il gioire, o vago Tirsi (1595)
in the G-Dorian mode serves as the primary analytical example, demonstrating
the textual and musical dimensions work in coordination throughout to distinguish
structure for the listener.
Evoking Cyclic Time: Toru Takemitsus Requiem for Strings
Tomoko Deguchi, Winthrop University
Requiem for Strings is an early piece that brought Takemitsu widespread recognition. When describing the Requiem, Takemitsu states that the work has no clearly differentiated beginning or end, thereby lacking the kind of articulations necessary for our usual definition of musical form. In spite of Takemitsus claims, I argue that the Requiem does have a precise beginning, one that influences and provides relationships and references to later events in the music. However, the formal and structural indistinctness create for listeners the impression of circularity.
In this paper, I identify the elusiveness of the perception of pulse and
meter at many moments of the piece, as well as the obscurity of the origin
of pitch materials, which contribute to this impression of circularity. But
the most important feature that creates what I call cyclic time form is
the cyclic repetition of the distinctive three-note musical figures. Copious
recurrences of figures often overlap with one another or are embedded within
other larger repetitions, and it is this specific feature that creates a
complexity that challenges the listeners perception of form. In many traditions
outside that of the Western-European, time is a circle that turns on a daily,
yearly, and even cosmic scale. The cyclic concept of time can be perceived
as one type of linearity, however the linearity does not form a one-directional
line but rather appears as a spiral movement. The unique role of repetitions
in the Requiem is to evoke cyclic time, reflecting Takemitsus Eastern
heritage.
Chromatic Third Relations in Beethovens Spring Sonata: Implications for Form and Analysis
Bruce Durazzi, Northwestern University
The Adagio of Beethovens Spring Sonata includes a prominent
cycle of modulations by major thirds. This feature of the movement
is often noted as a precedent for later works that feature equal divisions
of the octave, but no published commentary has considered in detail how this unusual
chromatic cycle interacts with the formal process of the movement, and how
it relates to formal issues in the work as a whole. The passage in
question may be viewed in Schenkerian terms as a middleground bass
arpeggiation, or in neo-Riemannian terms as a complete hexatonic cycle.
Neither of these readings, however, fully captures the strangeness and particularity
of this unusual event. Viewed in terms of its role in the form, the
chromatic cycle appears to be much more disruptive than its theoretical
smoothness would suggest. By the end of the modulatory sequence, the movements
rondo structure has collapsed, and the final return to tonic is left without a
corresponding return of the principal theme. Further consideration of the
Adagio in relation to the other movements reveals that chromatic third
relations are thematized in each of the four movements. After playing
various transgressive roles in the first three movements, the destabilizing
threat of chromatic third relations is finally brought under control in the
final rondo.
Twentieth-Century Tonality and Shostakovichs String Quartet No. 3, Mvt. 5
Denise Elshoff, Yale University
Music theory has developed sophisticated analytic methods and theories for common-practice tonal (ca. 17001900) and non-tonal music, but it has not yet developed such refined tools for tonal music of the twentieth century. I propose an approach grounded in the notion that scale types and their intervallic properties affect how intervals are contextually heard.
In scalar contexts, rare intervals play an important role in establishing tonal centers and hierarchies through a process that Browne (1981) terms, position finding. Scale-degree distinctiveness can play a similar position-finding role. Scale types, like the diatonic, that have both rare intervals and unique scale degrees are naturally (or systemically) more hierarchical than scale types, like the chromatic, that lack rare intervals and unique scale degrees. As a result, intervals tend to be heard between scale degrees in diatonic contexts but within pc-set aggregates in chromatic contexts. Twentieth-century tonal music, however, often undermines the hierarchical tendencies of the diatonic collection and the aggregate tendencies of chromatic collections.
The rondo theme from Shostakovichs Third Quartet, Mvt. 5
will illustrate how a chromatic and harmonically non-functional theme may
nevertheless assert a tonal center and scalar hierarchy through contextual
factors. Unlike
most themes of its kind, it features accented dissonances. My analysis
will reveal how the rondo theme creates an ironic ambivalence between its
centric FC dyad and competing ic-5 dyads by counterbalancing devices that
establish F-centricity with ones that weaken or undercut it. Structural
and hermeneutic ramifications of these techniques will be considered.
Reconfiguring Stravinsky and Minimalism: Structure of Hockets in the Music by Louis Andriessen
Yayoi Uno-Everett, Emory University
Since adopting hocket as a principle textural device in Hoketus (1976), the Dutch composer Louis Andriessen develops this technique into a multi-part hocket in Symphony for Open Strings (1979) and in contexts of polyrhythmic cycles in De Tijd (1981) and De Snelheid (1983). This paper focuses on the analysis of hocket technique as a key to understanding how Andriessen reconfigured early minimalist and Stravinskian rhythmic techniques in crafting his dialectical approach to composition. My analysis introduces the following procedures to formalize the transformation of hockets in selected works by Andriessen: pattern reversal (REV), exchange of patterns (FLIP), gradual extension (EXT), truncation (TRC) of pulse, or a combination of the above. By exploring such properties, I propose to show how Andriessen deploys hockets in increasingly more complex musical contexts as a vehicle for generating productive tension in working out contradictory musical processes. In conclusion, I discuss the extent to which such techniques expand the structure of polyrhythmic cycles found in Stravinskys music such as The Rite of Spring and rhythmic processes in music by John Adams.
Visual Algebraic Models for Sets of Synthetic Musical Scales
Jerry Ianni, LaGuardia Community College/CUNY
Ferrucio Busoni first introduced synthetic musical scales in 1907. In papers published in 1929 and in 1949, J. Murray Barbour worked towards a complete classification of scale patterns and an enumeration of all possible synthetic musical scales. In 1970, Robert M. Mason extended Barbours results using matrix algebra techniques. He also provided a complete catalogue of such scales. In this paper, I probe the algebraic structure of various collections of synthetic musical scales and scale fragments. Specifically, I show how to convert such collections into commutative bands (i.e., commutative semigroups wherein each element is an idempotent).
This result is compelling because every commutative band can be represented
graphically through its associated Hasse diagram; and by making appropriate
interpretations, these diagrams greatly inform voice-leading investigations. In
particular, the diagrams provide compact visualization of semitonal movements. They
enable immediateperception of some downshift, upshift, and other voice leadings
identified by David Lewin. In addition, the principles used for constructing
and interpreting associated Hasse diagrams dovetail with those used in recent
work by Joseph N. Straus on the development of graphical models for set class
space. A consequence of the algebraic theory is that commutative band
structures exist on set class space.
A Mathematical Model Of Tonal Function
Robert T. Kelley, Lander University
I propose a mathematical model that formalizes the derivation
of recent tonal harmonic theories that posit potential harmonic functions
for each scale degree, such as Daniel Harrison's Harmonic Function
in Chromatic Music and Ian Quinn's "Harmonic Function without
Primary Triads". Mathematical
groups that model tonal scale-degree functions will help to clarify the use
of these functions to aid in composition and analysis. The mathematical representation
of pitches is based on the ordered pair notation introduced by Alexander
Brinkman (Spectrum 1986). Following an intuitive analytical discussion
of the mathematical groups and the algebraic functions that relate them,
I give examples of the useful distinctions among the tonal scale-degree functions
that are clarified by this theory. I will then use the distinctions among
scale-degree functions supported by the mathematical model to reinforce and
refine Ian Quinn's functional designations and contribute to current systems
of part-writing techniques based on scale-degree functions.
Debussy: The Origins of a Method
Mark McFarland, Georgia State University
The mosaic-like formal structure that would eventually come to be known as moment form was first discussed in Edward T. Cones article Stravinsky: The Progress of a Method; although Cone makes no such claim, the impression is made that Stravinsky was the originator of this formal structure. Indeed, Jonathan Cross has recently argued that moment-form works written by a wide variety of composers during the course of the 20th century can be traced back to Stravinsky. This paper will argue instead that the origins of moment form are actually found in the works of Debussy, most notably in Ondine from his second book of piano preludes (1911-13).
While Ondine exhibits abrupt juxtapositions of material, the form of this
prelude is generated primarily from the consistent opposition between diatonic
and chromatic harmony, the latter defined here as symmetrical scales or Messiaens
modes of limited transposition. While this harmonic opposition is
certainly found in Stravinsky's works as well, Cone instead finds the generation
of Stravinskys form in the surface discontinuities of his works. By
shifting the generating principle of Cones theory from formal discontinuity
to harmonic opposition, the concepts of stratification, interlock, and synthesis
between the various musical lines of a work are more easily identified. Finally,
two aspects unique to Debussys approach to this formal structure further
validate aspects of Cones theory, since they both clarify and strengthen
the interplay between the initial strands of each musical line.
Rachel Mitchell, University of Texas at Austin
In the Spring 2003 issue of Music Theory Spectrum, Jonathan Bernard reviews two studies of The Beatles by Allan F. Moore and Walter Everett. Bernards main argument with the books is how the theoretical material is presented. In a critique of the analyses presented by Moore, Bernard even goes as far as to state that the use of Schenkerian conventions, in however a distorted form, calls for a different kind of analytical solution, one that is not realized here (378). While Bernard agrees with more of the analyses presented by Everett, he claims several of them to be either radical or questionable. Thus Bernard writes that there may be many other, equally radical theoretical revisions needed to produce a (post?-) Schenkerian analytic practice truly suited to rock (380).
Combining Schenkerian-style graphs with rock-inspired salience conditions
can provide the solution to this problem. This paper proposes an analysis
of The Beatles Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds based on the combination
of modified Schenker graphs and newly created Rock and Pop Salience Conditions
(RPSCs) influenced by Lerdahls Tonal Pitch Space. As in Schenkerian
analysis, the musical events on the graphs with structural weight are given
open or filled note-heads and/or stems of varying length to show their importance
in terms of salience in the absence of tonal function. Thus, a pop-rock
song in multiple keys along with all of its idiosyncratic voice-leading issues
may be represented linearly and hierarchically using Schenkerian-style graphs
influenced by these RPSCs.
Completely Incomplete: Rhythmic and Melodic Contour as a Means of Continuity in Weberns Unfinished Cello Sonata (1914)
Carolyn Mullin, Florida State University
At the urging of his teacher and mentor Arnold Schoenberg, Anton Webern undertook the task of composing a piece in a larger form in earnest in 1914. However, Webern stopped work on his Cello Sonata to write Three Short Pieces, Op. 11, and he never returned to the Cello Sonata to compose the second movement he intended. The extant score was not published until Carl Fischer brought it out in 1970 and apart from a brief mention in Demske (1986), there are no published analyses of Weberns Cello Sonata. This might be because analyzing an incomplete piece raises some interesting questions about continuity and coherence. For example, can a structural and formal plan be determined? Can a single movement truly be complete in the context of a multi-movement plan? To answer these questions, my paper investigates what role both rhythmic and melodic contours play in the motivic structure of this work and how transformations of these contours create unity through varied repetition.
Despite this piece being unfinished, there is a complete and identifiable developmental process involving motivic variation of tetrachords. Four-note motives at the beginning of the piece are clear and salient segmentations, and then as the piece progresses, the motives become unfocused and less easily identified due to the different types of distortions applied to the motives.
Motivic variation and deformation processes indeed confer a unifying role for determining the formal structure and creating continuity across the movement. By examining rhythmic contours (both durational patterns and in duration space) and melodic contours, which develop a similar variation process across the piece, a coherent, complete, and overarching progression unfolds despite Weberns Cello Sonata being an incomplete work.
Five-Measure Units in Brahmss Rhapsody in Eb Major, Op. 119, No. 4: Their Necessity, Effect, and Consequences
Samuel Ng, Louisiana State University
Although five-measure phrases and hypermeters are not regular features of
Brahmss phrase rhythm, they nonetheless appear periodically in prominent
musical themes in the composers output. The introduction of these idiosyncratic
phrasal and hypermetric units in lieu of the more conventional four-measure,
eight-measure, and even six-measure constructions raises interesting questions
on their functions and ramifications. In this paper, I argue that Brahmss
deployment of five-measure units in the Rhapsody in Eb, Op. 119, No. 4, attains
an opganic complexity that surpasses his earlier examples. To demonstrate
the significance of the initial five-measure unit in the Rhapsody, I will
first consider its origin and necessity from the viewpoint of Schenkerian
phrase rhythm, and then proceed to analyze the metric dissonance effect created
by the tonal content of the unit. Finally, I will borrow Schoenbergs idea
of Grundgestalt to discuss the consequences of the five-measure
unit in the course of the Rhapsody. In particular, I will show that the temporal
structure of the five-measure unit acts as a metric basic shape, which
undergoes developing variation to derive a series of local and global metric
structures and proportions that help delineate the overall form.
Incontri and Disincontri: Berios Writings and Boulezs Arguments in the 1950s
From 1956 to 1960, Luciano Berio (1925-2003) published an avant-garde journal called Incontri Musicali, and was both its editor and collaborator. Four issues of the journal were published, although their release was somewhat irregular. In the journals, Berio featured the most important composers of the Darmstadt generation, himself contributing three articles. It is somewhat difficult to access the journals today: they have not been translated into English and only eight libraries in the world own copies of them. I would like to offer an annotated commentary on Berios first article, Aspects of Formal Craft and compare it with selected writings from 1948-57 of Pierre Boulez (b. 1925), who was the most vocal and provocative author of the time.
In Aspects of Formal Craft, Berio addresses issues of composition technique
and musical language through his treatment of form, although his idea of
form is certainly not based on the classical ideals. Berios article
is very detailed and there are some strong suggestions that Berio is directly
responding to some of Boulezs claims. I will compare his idea of form
to Boulezs idea of form, as both integrate their thoughts with total serialism. A
few works will be examined as the authors use them to illustrate their points. They
are: Berios Allelujah (the only work he addresses in the first
article), Boulezs first and second piano sonatas, and the Flute Sonatina.
The Progress of a Motive in Brahmss Op. 119, No. 3
Adam Ricci, University of North Carolina at Greensboro
Johannes Brahmss skill with motivic development is well known. Beginning with Arnold Schoenbergs famous essay Brahms the Progressive, analysts have demonstrated time and time again the masterful ways in which Brahms manipulates his motivic ideas. Motivic development is especially concentrated in the late piano music Op. 116 through 119, written in 1892 and 1893. One piece that has received scant attention is Op. 119, no. 3, possibly due to its light character relative to the other Op. 119 movements.
In this paper, I demonstrate how this piece is structured
around two motivesone melodic, one harmonicthat sometimes operate separately,
sometimes together. The
global harmonic trajectory of the piece is embodied in the combination of
these motives; local harmonic motion proceeds around an LR-cycle, with periodic
short cuts from one zone of the cycle to another. The A section unfolds
a double-tonic complex while introducing chromatic pitch classes in a carefully
planned order; the B section is densely chromatic, featuring interlocking
transpositions of the harmonic motive. Remarkably, the order of chromatic
pitch classes in the first half of the piece is exactly reversed in the second
half. Rhythmic transformations of the motives are also addressed, including
a previously unnoted motivic connection between this piece and Op. 119, No.
2.
Alan Shockley, UNC-Chapel Hill
Can a novelist write a fugue? Can a poet write a contrapuntal sonnet? In this paper I will survey several literary authors attempts at contrapuntal writing, both imitative and non-imitative. Several Modernist authors were drawn to music, and especially to Western art musics prevalent use of multiple simultaneous streams of material. Despite the fact that the written page and standard modes of writing/reading do not lend themselves to polyphony, many authorsincluding James Joyce, Anthony Burgess, Douglas Hofstadter, William Gaddis, Roland Barthes, and othershave attempted just this.
My presentation will briefly survey the difficulties of writing a musically contrapuntal literary text. I will discuss such examples as Hofstadters Ant Fugue and James Joyces Sirens episode from Ulysses. I will then analyze several short contrapuntal passages: a polyphonic short story text written by Anthony Burgess in imitation of Mozarts Symphony No. 40 and even a humorous scene with a dentists drill by Dorothy L. Sayers. Roland Barthes S/Z and the concrete poetry of Allen Jones and Ian Hamilton Finlay will provide visual examples, and audio examples will be taken from Glenn Goulds The Idea of North radio composition, and Pierrot Lunaire, which provides an analogy between Schoenbergs pitch structure and Joyces wheels within wheels of Finnegans Wake.
The Image-Schematic Structuring of Musical Meaning: The Basic Level Response to Music
Jason W. Solomon, University of Georgia
A primary assumption of the Western philosophical tradition is that meaning is utterly objective and exists independent of human understanding. This objective view of meaning also maintains that the mind exists and operates independent of the human body. Recent work by philosopher Mark Johnson has revealed the critical role that the human bodyspecifically the bodys sensory apparatuses and motor programsplays in directing the activity of the mind. Repetitive bodily, environmental, and cultural experiences give rise to preconceptual mental structures called image schemata, which serve to structure our experience as well as our understanding of abstract phenomena. The schemata may be fleshed-out or metaphorically elaborated in an infinite number of waysallowing for a rich (and subjectively variant) range of experience.
Several music theorists have applied Johnsons ideas to music; Lawrence Zbikowski has shown that we think and theorize about music in a highly metaphorical manner (a cognitive process grounded by image schemata). In this paper I will argue that our most basic reactions to musicbeginning at the preconceptual levelresult from the automatic process of fleshing-out various embodied schemata during the experience of music; abstract musical events are received and unconsciously organized in terms of the listeners embodied knowledgethus rendering the musical experience meaningful. Since most human beings have (and use) bodies that are fundamentally similar, we share many common schemata; yet, the precise fleshing-out of these schemata will vary from one listener to the next based on incongruent personal (physical, cultural) experience. Thus, musical meaning is chiefly intrapersonal, but the image schemata ensure degrees of shared, interpersonal meaning. I will discuss one of the most pervasive schematathe Tension and Release (T&R) Schema, identify its experiential source(s), and demonstrate how it is active during the musical experience.