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Title: Metamorphoses

Metamorphoses

Problem-Solving Strategies in Musical Structure

by Barbara Barry (Author)
©2026 Monographs XXIV, 260 Pages
The Arts

Summary

In a striking theoretical re-positioning, Barbara Barry proposes that problem-solving, as in scientific theory, asks strategic questions of “how” and “why” important musical compositions work the way they do. She focuses on three criteria of investigation: identity, implementation and intrusion, in order to define normative frameworks of style and form. These normative constructs provide frames of reference by which to evaluate powerful innovation in music, and in larger contexts of art, literature and the history of ideas.

Table Of Contents

  • Cover
  • Halftitle
  • Title
  • Copyright Page
  • Contents
  • Figures
  • Musical Examples
  • Acknowledgments
  • Introduction
  • Part I: Identity: Motivic Identity and Praxis: Actors, Agents, Navigators
  • Chapter 1: The Making of the Motif: The Contour of Melancholy in the Lute-Songs of John Dowland
  • Chapter 2: The Re-Making of the Motif: Literary Contexts as Determinants in Bach and Berlioz
  • Chapter 3: The Transformation of the Motif: Lamplighters in Mahler’s Musical World
  • Part II: Implementation: Risk and Restitution in Beethoven’s String Quartets
  • Chapter 4: In Beethoven’s Clockshop: Discontinuity in the Opus 18 Quartets
  • Chapter 5: Spiral Time and the Paradigm of Persuasion: Recontextualizing Beethoven’s String Quartet Op. 127
  • Chapter 6: Invisible Cities and Imaginary Landscapes: Timely Meditations on Beethoven’s Quartet in C sharp Minor, Op. 131 “quasi una fantasia”
  • Part III: Intrusion: Structure and its Discontents
  • Chapter 7: ‘Mind the Gap’: Pitch Connectors and Sectional Disjunction in Schubert’s Late Instrumental Music
  • Chapter 8: Chronicles and Witnesses: ‘A Survivor from Warsaw’ through Adorno’s Broken Mirror
  • Coda
  • Bibliography
  • Author Index: Composers, Artists, Writers
  • Topics Index

Contents

  1. Figures

  2. Musical Examples

  3. Acknowledgments

  4. Introduction

  5. Part I Identity: Motivic Identity and Praxis: Actors, Agents, Navigators

    1. 1 The Making of the Motif: The Contour of Melancholy in the Lute-Songs of John Dowland

    2. 2 The Re-Making of the Motif: Literary Contexts as Determinants in Bach and Berlioz

    3. 3 The Transformation of the Motif: Lamplighters in Mahler’s Musical World

  6. Part II Implementation: Risk and Restitution in Beethoven’s String Quartets

    1. 4 In Beethoven’s Clockshop: Discontinuity in the Opus 18 Quartets

    2. 5 Spiral Time and the Paradigm of Persuasion: Recontextualizing Beethoven’s String Quartet Op. 127

    3. 6 Invisible Cities and Imaginary Landscapes: Timely Meditations on Beethoven’s Quartet in C sharp Minor, Op. 131 “quasi una fantasia”

  7. Part III Intrusion: Structure and its Discontents

    1. 7 ‘Mind the Gap’: Pitch Connectors and Sectional Disjunction in Schubert’s Late Instrumental Music

    2. 8 Chronicles and Witnesses: ‘A Survivor from Warsaw’ through Adorno’s Broken Mirror

  8. CODA

  9. Bibliography

  10. Author Index: Composers, Artists, Writers

  11. Topics Index

Figures

  1. Figure 1. Gargoyles, Notre Dame Cathedral, Paris, (1163–1345).

  2. Figure 2. Caravaggio, David with the Head of Goliath, Galleria Borghese, Rome (c.1607–10).

  3. Figure 3. J. M. W. Turner, Venice from the Guidecca, 1840, Victoria & Albert Museum, London.

  4. Figure 4. Albrecht Dürer, Melencolia 1. 1514. Städelsches Kunstinstitut and Stätische Galerie.

  5. Figure 5. Laocoön and his sons. Vatican Museums.

  6. Figure 6. The Armada Portrait of Queen Elizabeth 1, 1558–1603. Royal Museums, Greenwich.

  7. Figure 7. Hans Holbein, The Ambassadors 1533. National Gallery, London.

  8. Figure 8. Hans Holbein, The Ambassadors, detail, broken lute string. 1533. National Gallery, London.

  9. Figure 9. Hector Berlioz. Portrait by Emile Signol, 1832. Musée Hector Berlioz, La Côte Saint-André.

  10. Figure 10. Thomas de Quincey by Sir John Watson-Gordon, c. 1845. National Portrait Gallery, London.

  11. Figure 11. Caspar David Friedrich, Wanderer above the Sea of Fog, 1818. Hamburg, KunstHalle.

Musical Examples

  1. Ex. 1 and Ex. 2. Monteverdi, La Favola d’Orfeo, Act 2.

  2. Ex. 3. Dowland, Flow, my Teares, opening.

  3. Exs. 4 and 5. Marenzio, Lasso, ch‘io ardo.

  4. Ex. 6. Bach, St Matthew Passion, final chorus, opening.

  5. Ex. 7. Chorale: “Ich will hier bei dir stehen”, No. 23.

  6. Ex. 8. Chorus with chorale, “O Mensch, bewein dein Sünde gross”, No. 35, bars 30–5.

  7. Ex. 9. Aria, “Buss und Reu”, No. 10, bars 1–4.

  8. Ex. 10. Aria, “Buss und Reu”, No. 10, bars 13–20.

  9. Ex. 11. Aria, “Buss und Reu”, No. 10, bars 69–81.

  10. Ex. 12. Berlioz, Symphonie Fantastique, ‚idée fixe‘, 1st movement, bars 72–80.

  11. Ex. 13. Berlioz, Symphonie Fantastique, ‚idée fixe‘, finale, bars 21–8.

  12. Ex. 14. Mahler, Adagietto, 5th symphony, opening, bars 1–10.

  13. Ex. 15. Mahler, Adagietto, 5th symphony, opening, bars 33–8.

  14. Ex. 16. Mahler, Finale, 5th symphony, Adagietto theme re-worked in the character of the finale, bars 190–201.

  15. Ex. 17. “Der Einsame in Herbst”, 2nd movement of Das Lied von der Erde, bar 78.

  16. Ex. 18. “Der Einsame in Herbst”, 2nd movement of Das Lied von der Erde, bars 136–7.

  17. Ex. 19. Mahler, Kindertotenlieder, No. 2, “Nun seh‘ ich wohl, warum so dunkle Flammen”, opening.

  18. Ex. 20. Mahler, 9th Symphony, 1st movement, opening.

  19. Ex. 21. Mahler, Kindertotenlieder, No. 1, “Nun will die Sonn’ so hell aufgeh’n,” upbeat bar 32–6.

  20. Ex. 22. Mahler, 9th symphony, 1st movement, upbeat bar 64–71.

  21. Ex. 23. Mahler, 9th symphony, 1st movement, upbeat bar 18–19.

  22. Ex. 24. Mahler, 9th symphony, 1st movement, upbeat bar 49–50.

  23. Ex. 25. Mahler, 9th symphony, 1st movement, upbeat bar 55–6.

  24. Ex. 26. Mahler, finale, 9th symphony, opening.

  25. Ex. 27. Mahler, 9th symphony, 1st movement, bar 304.

  26. Ex. 28. Beethoven, String Quartet in C minor, Op. 18 no. 4, 1st movement, exposition.

  27. Ex. 29. Beethoven, String Quartet in C minor, Op. 18 no. 4, 1st movement, exposition, closing first subject group.

  28. Ex. 30. Beethoven, String Quartet in C minor, Op. 18 no. 4, 1st movement, recapitulation, intensified lead-up to the second subject.

  29. Ex. 31. Beethoven, String Quartet in C minor, Op. 18 no. 4, 1st movement, coda.

  30. Ex. 32. Beethoven, String Quartet in D major, Op. 18 no. 3, 1st movement.

  31. Ex. 33. Mozart, String Quartet in B flat major, Hunt, K. 458, 1st movement.

  32. Ex. 34. Mozart, String Quartet in A major, K. 464, 1st movement.

  33. Ex. 35. Beethoven, String Quartet in F major, Op. 18 no. 1, 1st movement.

  34. Ex. 36. Beethoven, String Quartet in F major, Razumovsky, Op. 59 no. 1, 1st movement.

  35. Ex. 37. Beethoven, String Quartet in F major, Op. 18 no. 1, 1st movement.

  36. Ex. 38. Beethoven, String Quartet in F major, Op. 18 no. 1, 1st movement.

  37. Ex. 39. Beethoven, String Quartet in F major, Op. 18 no. 1, 1st movement.

Details

Pages
XXIV, 260
Publication Year
2026
ISBN (PDF)
9783631938041
ISBN (ePUB)
9783631938058
ISBN (Hardcover)
9783631937778
DOI
10.3726/b22910
Language
English
Publication date
2026 (March)
Keywords
Peter Gay Berlin Borges Calvino Adorno Schoenberg Mahler Schubert Beethoven dialectics history of ideas theory innovation Problem-solving
Published
Berlin, Bruxelles, Chennai, Lausanne, New York, Oxford, 2026. xxiv, 260 pp., 15 fig. col., 86 fig. b/w.
Product Safety
Peter Lang Group AG

Biographical notes

Barbara Barry (Author)

In a striking theoretical re-positioning, the author proposes that problem-solving, as in scientific theory, asks strategic questions of “how” and “why” important musical compositions work the way they do. She focuses on three criteria of investigation: identity, implementation and intrusion, in order to define normative frameworks of style and form. These normative constructs provide frames of reference by which to evaluate powerful innovation in music, and in larger contexts of art, literature and the history of ideas.

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Title: Metamorphoses