Cryptic Audiodiversity and the Dissonant Perfect Unison

Abstract

"After a certain high level of technical skill is achieved, science and art tend to coalesce in esthetics, plasticity, and form."- Albert Einstein[1] For the past decade, scientists have been investigating a genetic phenomenon known as cryptic biodiversity (Beheregaray and Caccone 2007; Garcia-Paris et al. 2000). Armed with the latest advances in DNA testing, researchers now know that two organisms sharing identical outward appearances may in fact be entirely different species-as genetically divergent as cats and dogs. The extent of cryptic biodiversity is just beginning to be appreciated, and studies have demonstrated its presence amongst amphibians, birds, mammals, reptiles, fungi, and plants. As the number of recognized species continues to grow, cryptic biodiversity will have a major impact on our perception of the endangered species list. Some scientists fear that the continual announcement of new species may diminish the desire to protect those already at risk of extinction.[2] Although music theorists need not contend with such life-or-death matters, the concept of cryptic biodiversity resonates in musical analysis as well, where "seeing is believing" can be a hazardous modus operandi. Tonal music is a contextual art; the meaning of any pitch, harmony, or key depends on its surroundings-both immediate and long-range. The way something looks and the manner in which it operates do not necessarily correspond. Nor is the function of a musical entity limited to a single role based on its external facade. The remainder of this essay will illustrate examples of what I refer to as cryptic audiodiversity: musical objects that possess similar or identical surface visages, yet act in dissimilar ways. This preliminary study will culminate with a direct musical equivalent of cryptic biodiversity, a species of dissonant perfect unison that, to my knowledge, has not been addressed by music theorists.(1)[3] Consider the Trio from the third movement of Mozart's Symphony no. 35 in D major, K. 385. Allen Cadwallader and David Gagne provide an illuminating account of this work in Analysis of Tonal Music (2007, 221-224, 381 n. 10) (see Example 1). What if one were to assert that measures 1-8 and 21-28, which are near carbon copies of one another, should be depicted with the same graphic symbols? One can counter this argument from two perspectives. From an analytical point of view, these passages represent different points in the overall structure of the composition. Motion of the Urlinie to scale-degree one represents more than melodic closure-it represents structural closure, and these two concepts are not synonymous. From a performance angle, measures 1-8 and 21-28 need not be played in exactly the same manner, even though they are virtual duplicates. They do not possess equal amounts of closure, nor must one apply the same amount of ritenuto and dynamic tapering to the ends of both passages.(2)Example 1. Mozart, Symphony no. 35, K. 385, III, Trio (after Cadwallader/Gagne)[4] Therefore, interpreting measures 1-8 and 21-28 depends not only on their own content, but, just as importantly on the presence or absence of subsequent events.(3) (In this case the Trio can be viewed as an independent composition, and the return to the Menuetto can be considered a separate structure.) It is also true that what does or does not precede a repeated excerpt may strongly influence one's hearing of it. At the onset of Schubert's Moment Musical, D. 780 no. 6, the bass states the structural tonic immediately, initiating several measures of tonic prolongation (see Example 2a). When the same music returns after the Trio, it is no longer preceded by a blank slate. Instead, one hears it in relation to the subdominant key area of the Trio (see Example 2b). Not only does the D major Trio effect a large-scale key scheme that mimics the composition's initial bass tones, it also transforms the meaning of the A major harmony that initiates the da capo statement of the Allegretto (see Example 2c). …