Repetition is important in music, where sounds or sequences are often repeated. It may be called restatement, such as the restatement of a

theme Theme or themes may refer to: * Theme (Byzantine district), an administrative district in the Byzantine Empire governed by a Strategos * Theme (computing), a custom graphical appearance for certain software. * Theme (linguistics), topic * Theme ( ...

. While it plays a role in all music, with

noise Noise is sound, chiefly unwanted, unintentional, or harmful sound considered unpleasant, loud, or disruptive to mental or hearing faculties. From a physics standpoint, there is no distinction between noise and desired sound, as both are vibrat ...

and musical tones lying along a spectrum from irregular to

periodic Periodicity or periodic may refer to: Mathematics * Bott periodicity theorem, addresses Bott periodicity: a modulo-8 recurrence relation in the homotopy groups of classical groups * Periodic function, a function whose output contains values tha ...

sounds, it is especially prominent in specific styles.

Usage

A literal repetition of a musical passage is often indicated by the use of a

repeat sign In music, a repeat sign is a Musical notation, sign that indicates a section should be repetition (music), repeated. If the piece has one repeat sign alone, then that means to repeat from the beginning, and then continue on (or stop, if the sign a ...

, or the instructions

da capo Da capo ( , , ; often abbreviated as D.C.) is an Italian musical term that means "from the beginning" (literally, "from the head"). The term is a directive to repeat the previous part of music, often used to save space, and thus is an easie ...

dal segno In music notation, dal segno (, , ), often abbreviated as D.S., is used as a navigation marker. Defined as "from the sign" in Italian, D.S. appears in sheet music and instructs a musician to repeat a passage starting from the sign shown at ...

Theodor W. Adorno Theodor W. Adorno ( ; ; born Theodor Ludwig Wiesengrund; 11 September 1903 – 6 August 1969) was a German philosopher, musicologist, and social theorist. He was a leading member of the Frankfurt School of critical theory, whose work has com ...

damned repetition and

popular music Popular music is music with wide appeal that is typically distributed to large audiences through the music industry. These forms and styles can be enjoyed and performed by people with little or no musical training.Popular Music. (2015). ''Fun ...

as psychotic and infantile. In contrast, Richard Middleton (1990) argues that "while repetition is a feature of ''all'' music, of any sort, a high level of repetition may be a specific mark of 'the popular'" and that this allows an "enabling" of "an inclusive rather than exclusive audience". "There is no universal norm or convention" for the amount or type of repetition; "all music contains repetition – but in differing amounts and of an enormous variety of types". This is influenced by "the political economy of production; the 'psychic economy' of individuals; the musico-technological media of production and reproduction (oral, written, electric); and the weight of the syntactic conventions of music-historical traditions". Middleton distinguishes between discursive and musematic repetition. A

museme A museme is a minimal unit of musical meaning, analogous to a morpheme in linguistics, "the basic unit of musical expression which in the framework of one given musical system is not further divisible without destruction of meaning." A museme may: ...

is a minimal unit of meaning, analogous to a

morpheme A morpheme is any of the smallest meaningful constituents within a linguistic expression and particularly within a word. Many words are themselves standalone morphemes, while other words contain multiple morphemes; in linguistic terminology, this ...

in linguistics, and musematic repetition is "at the level of the short

figure Figure may refer to: General *A shape, drawing, depiction, or geometric configuration *Figure (wood), wood appearance *Figure (music), distinguished from musical motif * Noise figure, in telecommunication * Dance figure, an elementary dance patt ...

, often used to generate an entire structural framework". Discursive repetition is "at the level of the phrase or section, which generally functions as part of a larger-scale 'argument'". He gives "paradigmatic case : the

riff A riff is a short, repeated motif or figure in the melody or accompaniment of a musical composition. Riffs are most often found in rock music, punk, heavy metal music, Latin, funk, and jazz, although classical music is also sometimes based ...

and the

phrase In grammar, a phrasecalled expression in some contextsis a group of words or singular word acting as a grammatical unit. For instance, the English language, English expression "the very happy squirrel" is a noun phrase which contains the adject ...

. Musematic repetition includes circularity,

synchronic Synchronic may refer to: * ''Synchronic'' (film), a 2019 American science fiction film starring Anthony Mackie and Jamie Dornan *Synchronic analysis, the analysis of a language at a specific point of time *Synchronicity, the experience of two or m ...

relations, and openness. Discursive repetition includes linearity, rational control, and self-sufficiency. Discursive repetition is most often nested (

hierarchically A hierarchy (from Greek: , from , 'president of sacred rites') is an arrangement of items (objects, names, values, categories, etc.) that are represented as being "above", "below", or "at the same level as" one another. Hierarchy is an important ...

) in larger repetitions and may be thought of as sectional, while musematic repetition may be thought of as

additive Additive may refer to: Mathematics * Additive function, a function in number theory * Additive map, a function that preserves the addition operation * Additive set-function see Sigma additivity * Additive category, a preadditive category with fin ...

. Put more simply, musematic repetition is simple repetition of precisely the same musical figure, such as a repeated

chorus Chorus may refer to: Music * Chorus (song), the part of a song that is repeated several times, usually after each verse * Chorus effect, the perception of similar sounds from multiple sources as a single, richer sound * Chorus form, song in whic ...

. Discursive repetition is "both repetitive and non-repetitive" (Lott, p. 174), such as the repetition of the same rhythmic figure with different notes. During the

Classical era Classical antiquity, also known as the classical era, classical period, classical age, or simply antiquity, is the period of cultural European history between the 8th century BC and the 5th century AD comprising the interwoven civilization ...

, musical concerts were highly expected events, and because someone who liked a piece of music could not listen to it again, musicians had to think of a way to make the music sink in. Therefore, they would repeat parts of their song at times, making music like

sonata In music a sonata (; pl. ''sonate'') literally means a piece ''played'' as opposed to a cantata (Latin and Italian ''cantare'', "to sing"), a piece ''sung''. The term evolved through the history of music, designating a variety of forms until th ...

s very repetitive, without being dull. Repetition is important in

musical form In music, ''form'' refers to the structure of a musical composition or musical improvisation, performance. In his book, ''Worlds of Music'', Jeff Todd Titon suggests that a number of organizational elements may determine the formal structure of a ...

. The repetition of any section of ternary form results in expanded ternary form, and in binary form the repetition of the first section at the end of the second results in

rounded binary form Binary form is a musical form in 2 related sections, both of which are usually repeated. Binary is also a structure used to choreograph dance. In music this is usually performed as A-A-B-B. Binary form was popular during the Baroque period, of ...

. Schenker argued that

musical technique Musical technique is the ability of musical instrument, instrumental and Human voice, vocal musicians to exert optimal control of their instruments or vocal cords in order to produce the precise musical effects they desire. Improving one's tech ...

's "most striking and distinctive characteristic" is repetition (Kivy, 327) while

Boulez Pierre Louis Joseph Boulez (; 26 March 19255 January 2016) was a French composer, conductor and writer, and the founder of several musical institutions. He was one of the dominant figures of post-war contemporary classical music. Born in Montb ...

argues that a high level of interest in repetition and variation (

analogy Analogy is a comparison or correspondence between two things (or two groups of things) because of a third element that they are considered to share. In logic, it is an inference or an argument from one particular to another particular, as oppose ...

and

difference Difference commonly refers to: * Difference (philosophy), the set of properties by which items are distinguished * Difference (mathematics), the result of a subtraction Difference, The Difference, Differences or Differently may also refer to: Mu ...

recognition Recognition may refer to: Machine learning *Pattern recognition, a branch of machine learning which encompasses the meanings below Biometric * Recognition of human individuals, or biometrics, used as a form of identification and access control ...

and the unknown) is characteristic of all musicians, especially

contemporary Contemporary history, in English-language historiography, is a subset of modern history that describes the historical period from about 1945 to the present. In the social sciences, contemporary history is also continuous with, and related t ...

, and the

dialectic Dialectic (; ), also known as the dialectical method, refers originally to dialogue between people holding different points of view about a subject but wishing to arrive at the truth through reasoned argument. Dialectic resembles debate, but the ...

between the two creates musical form (Campbell, 154). Au clair de la lune repetition

Types of repetition include "exact repetition" (aaa), "repetition after digression" (aba or aba'), and "nonrepetition" (abcd).

Copland Copland may refer to: * Copland (crater), on Mercury * Copland (operating system) * Copland (surname) * Copland River in New Zealand * 4532 Copland, an asteroid named after Aaron Copland * Aaron Copland, American composer See also * Copeland (dis ...

and Slatkin offer "

Au clair de la lune "" (, ) is a French Folk music, folk song of the 18th century. Its composer and lyricist are unknown. Its simple melody () is commonly taught to beginners learning an instrument. Lyrics The song appears as early as 1820 i''Les Voitures Verse� ...

" and "

Ach! du lieber Augustin "" ("Oh, you dear Augustin") is a popular Wienerlied, Viennese song, first published about 1800. It is said to refer to the balladeer Marx Augustin and his brush with death in 1679. Augustin himself is sometimes named as the author, but the ori ...

" as examples of aba, and "The Seeds of Love" as an example of the last
Copland & Slatkin,
At the tone level, repetition creates a

drone Drone or The Drones may refer to: Science and technology Vehicle * Drone, a type of uncrewed vehicle, a class of robot ** Unmanned aerial vehicle or aerial drone *** Unmanned combat aerial vehicle ** Unmanned ground vehicle or ground drone ** Unma ...

Repetitive music

Some music features a relatively high degree of repetition in its creation or

reception Reception is a noun form of ''receiving'', or ''to receive'' something, such as art, experience, information, people, products, or vehicles. It may refer to: Astrology * Reception (astrology), when a planet is located in a sign ruled by another p ...

. Examples include

minimalist music In visual arts, music, and other media, minimalism is an art movement that began in the post-war era in western art. The movement is often interpreted as a reaction to abstract expressionism and modernism; it anticipated contemporary post-m ...

krautrock Krautrock (also called , German for ) is a broad genre of experimental rock that developed in Germany in the late 1960s and early 1970s. It originated among artists who blended elements of psychedelic rock, avant-garde composition, and electron ...

disco Disco is a music genre, genre of dance music and a subculture that emerged in the late 1960s from the United States' urban nightclub, nightlife, particularly in African Americans, African-American, Italian-Americans, Italian-American, LGBTQ ...

(and its later derivatives such as

house music House is a genre of electronic dance music characterized by a repetitive Four on the floor (music), four-on-the-floor beat and a typical tempo of 115–130 beats per minute. It was created by DJs and music producers from Chicago's underground ...

), some

techno Techno is a genre of electronic dance music (EDM) which is generally produced for use in a continuous DJ set, with tempos being in the range from 120 to 150 beats per minute (bpm). The central rhythm is typically in common time ( ) and often ...

, some of

Igor Stravinsky Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky ( – 6 April 1971) was a Russian composer and conductor with French citizenship (from 1934) and American citizenship (from 1945). He is widely considered one of the most important and influential 20th-century c ...

's compositions, barococo, and the

Suzuki method The Suzuki method is a mid-20th-century music curriculum and teaching method created by Japanese violinist and pedagogue Shinichi Suzuki. The method claims to create a reinforcing environment for learning music for young learners. Backgroun ...

(Fink 2005, p. 5). Other important genres with repetitive songwriting are

post rock Post-rock is a subgenre of experimental rock that emphasizes texture, atmosphere, and non-traditional song structures over conventional rock techniques. Post-rock artists often combine rock instrumentation and rock stylings with electronics a ...

ambient Ambient or ambiance or ambience may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Ambiancé'', an unreleased experimental film * ''Ambient'' (novel), a novel by Jack Womack Music and sound * Ambience (sound recording), also known as atmospheres or backgr ...

dark ambient Dark ambient (referred to as ambient industrial especially in the 1980s) is a genre of post-industrial musicReed, Alexander: ''Assimilate: A Critical History of Industrial Music'', Oxford University Press, 2013, , p. 190 that features an ominous, ...

, and

black metal Black metal is an extreme metal, extreme subgenre of heavy metal music. Common traits include Tempo#Beats per minute, fast tempos, a Screaming (music)#Black metal, shrieking vocal style, heavily distorted Electric guitar, guitars played with tr ...

Psychological interpretations

Repetitive music has often been negatively linked with

Freud Sigmund Freud ( ; ; born Sigismund Schlomo Freud; 6 May 1856 – 23 September 1939) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for evaluating and treating pathologies seen as originating from conflicts in t ...

ian

thanatos In Greek mythology, Thanatos (; , ''Thánatos'', pronounced in "Death", from θνῄσκω ''thnēskō'' "(I) die, am dying") was the Personifications of death, personification of death. He was a minor figure in Greek mythology, often referre ...

provides an example in his criticism of

, whose "rhythmic procedures closely resemble the schema of catatonic conditions. In certain schizophrenics, the process by which the motor apparatus becomes independent leads to infinite repetition of gestures or words, following the decay of the ego." Similar criticism was leveled at

Ravel Joseph Maurice Ravel (7 March 1875 – 28 December 1937) was a French composer, pianist and conductor. He is often associated with Impressionism in music, Impressionism along with his elder contemporary Claude Debussy, although both composer ...

Bolero Bolero is a genre of song which originated in eastern Cuba in the late 19th century as part of the trova tradition. Unrelated to the older Spanish dance of the same name, bolero is characterized by sophisticated lyrics dealing with love. It h ...

Wim Mertens Wim Mertens (; born 14 May 1953) is a Flemish Belgian composer, countertenor vocalist, pianist, guitarist, and musicologist. Life and work Mertens was born in Neerpelt, Belgium. He studied social and political science at the University of Leu ...

(1980, pp. 123–124) writes, "In repetitive music, repetition in the service of the death instinct prevails. Repetition is not repetition of identical elements, so it is not reproduction, but the repetition of the identical in another guise. In traditional music, repetition is a device for creating recognizability, reproduction for the sake of the music notes of that specific line and the representing ego. In repetitive music, repetition does not refer to eros and the ego, but to the libido and to the death instinct." Repetitive music has also been linked with

Lacan Jacques Marie Émile Lacan (, ; ; 13 April 1901 – 9 September 1981) was a French psychoanalyst and psychiatrist. Described as "the most controversial psycho-analyst since Freud", Lacan gave yearly seminars in Paris, from 1953 to 1981, and ...

ian

jouissance ''Jouissance'' () is a French language term implying "enjoyment"; the term jouissance connotes ''jouir'' 'to come' as in sexual parlance and has the meaning "orgasm" in french. In continental philosophy and psychoanalysis, ''jouissance'' is the ...

. David Schawrz (1992, p. 134) argues that the repetition in

John Adams John Adams (October 30, 1735 – July 4, 1826) was a Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father and the second president of the United States from 1797 to 1801. Before Presidency of John Adams, his presidency, he was a leader of ...

's ''

Nixon in China ''Nixon in China'' is an opera in three acts by John Adams with a libretto by Alice Goodman. Adams's first opera, it was inspired by U.S. president Richard Nixon's 1972 visit to the People's Republic of China. The work premiered at the Houston ...

'' is "trapping listeners in a narrow acoustic corridor of the Real" while Naomi Cumming (1997, p. 129–152) argues that the repetitive string ostinatos of

Steve Reich Stephen Michael Reich ( ; born October 3, 1936) is an American composer best known as a pioneer of minimal music in the mid to late 1960s. Reich's work is marked by its use of repetitive figures, slow harmonic rhythm, and canons. Reich descr ...

's ''

Different Trains ''Different Trains'' is a three-Movement (music), movement piece for string quartet and Tape music, tape written by Steve Reich in 1988. Background During World War II, Reich made train journeys between New York and Los Angeles to visit his par ...

'' are "prearticulate" pieces of the Real providing a refuge from the

Holocaust The Holocaust (), known in Hebrew language, Hebrew as the (), was the genocide of History of the Jews in Europe, European Jews during World War II. From 1941 to 1945, Nazi Germany and Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy ...

and its "horror of identification".

Genres

DJs at

clubs in the 1970s played a smooth mix of long single disco records to keep people dancing all night long. The 12-inch single was popularized as a means to this end. While disco songs have some repetitive elements, such as a persistent throbbing beat, these are counterbalanced by the musical variety provided by orchestral arrangements and

disco mix Disco is a genre of dance music and a subculture that emerged in the late 1960s from the United States' urban nightlife, particularly in African-American, Italian-American, Gay and Latino communities. Its sound features four-on-the-floor b ...

es that add different sound textures to the music, ranging from a full, orchestral sound to stripped-down break sections. The

electronic dance music Electronic dance music (EDM), also referred to as dance music or club music, is a broad range of percussive electronic music genres originally made for nightclubs, raves, and List of electronic dance music festivals, festivals. It is generally ...

genres that followed disco in the 1980s and 1990s, such as

and

, kept disco's bass drum rhythm but discarded orchestral arrangements and horn sections. House and techno had a more minimalist sound that layered electronic sounds and samples over a drum machine and a repetitive synth bassline. Extremely repetitive song structures are also used by some

bands like

Burzum Burzum (; ) is a Norwegian music project founded by former Mayhem member Varg Vikernes in 1991. Although Burzum never played live performances, it became a staple of the early Norwegian black metal scene and is considered one of the most infl ...

,Burzum
markprindle.com

Darkthrone Darkthrone is a Norwegian black metal band hailing from Kolbotn, Akershus. Formed in 1986 as a death metal band named Black Death, in 1991, Darkthrone transitioned to a black metal style influenced by Bathory (band), Bathory and Celtic Frost and ...

, Forgotten Woods, Lustre and

Striborg Striborg is a black metal / ambient project of Australian musician Russell Menzies. The project first began in 1994 under the name Kathaaria and during this time the stage name "Vvelkaarn" was used. The name Kathaaria was adapted from a Darkth ...

References

Bibliography

* Cited in Fink 2005. *Benward & Saker (2003). ''Music: In Theory and Practice, Vol. I''. Seventh edition. . * *Campbell, Edward (2010). ''Boulez, Music and Philosophy''. . Cites Boulez 2005b, 156 and 239. * Copland, Aaron & Slatkin, Leonard (2011). ''What to Listen for in Music''. . *Cumming, Naomi (1997). "The Horrors of Identification: Reich's ''Different Trains''" ''

Perspectives of New Music ''Perspectives of New Music'' (PNM) is a peer-reviewed academic journal specializing in music theory Music theory is the study of theoretical frameworks for understanding the practices and possibilities of music. ''The Oxford Companion to Musi ...

'' 35, no. I (Winter). *Fink, Robert (2005). ''Repeating Ourselves: American Minimal Music as Cultural Practice''. . * Kivy, Peter (1993). ''The Fine Art of Repetition: Essays in the Philosophy of Music''. . * Levitin, Daniel J. (2007). ''This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession''. . * Lott, Eric (1993). ''Love and Theft: Blackface Minstrelsy and the American Working Class''. Oxford University Press. . Cited in Middleton. *Margulis, Elizabeth Hellmuth (2013)
''On Repeat: How Music Plays the Mind.''
Oxford University Press. . *Mertens, Wim (1980/1983/1988). ''American Minimal Music'', trans. J. Hautekiet. . Cited in Fink 2005. * Middleton, Richard (1990/2002). ''Studying Popular Music''. Philadelphia: Open University Press. . *Middleton, Richard (1999). "Form". ''Key Terms in Popular Music and Culture'', Horner, Bruce and Swiss, Thomas, eds. Malden, Massachusetts. . *Miller, Michael (2005). ''The Complete Idiot's Guide to Music Theory''. . *Moravcsik, Michael J. (2001). ''Musical Sound: An Introduction to the Physics of Music''. . * Jonas, Oswald (1982). ''Introduction to the Theory of

Heinrich Schenker Heinrich Schenker (19 June 1868 – 14 January 1935) was an Austrian music theory, music theorist #Theoretical writings, whose writings have had a profound influence on subsequent musical analysis. His approach, now termed Schenkerian analysis ...

'' (1934: ''Das Wesen des musikalischen Kunstwerks: Eine Einführung in Die Lehre Heinrich Schenkers''). Translator:. John Rothgeb. . *Rajagopal, K. (2007). ''Engineering Physics''. . *Schwarz, David (1992). "Postmodernism, the Subject, and the Real in John Adams's ''Nixon in China''" ''Indiana Theory Review'' 13, no. 2 (fall). Cited in Fink 2005.