Abstract:This article interrogates and reimagines the approach to reductive music analysis characterized by spatial metaphors (like “underlying” harmony). Such language portrays analysis as the process of discovering a structure “beneath” a piece’s “surface.” I argue that this picture downplays the multi-faceted, varied processes that go into creating musical reductions. Examining details of several different kinds of relationships between “surface” and “depth,” I show that while the traditional characterization is ana… Show more
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