One Aspect of the Structure of Music. A Study of Regressive Tranformations of Musical Terms

Journal/Book: Nordisk Tidsskrift for Musikkterapi. 1996; 5: 100-112.

Abstract: One Aspect of the Structure of Music. A Study of Regressive Tranformations of Musical Terms 1. This study, based on Kris's concept of art as a "regression in the service of the ego," on Fisher's experimentally derived list of primary-process distortions of visual percepts, and on Fisher's application of these transformations to the art of Picasso, had as its purpose an investigation of the changes in musical themes in the course of the piece. 2. It was found that eight of the ten perceptual transformations listed by Fisher were applicable to the sphere of music. These eight transformations were found very frequently in serious music, especially in developmental sections and codas. 3. While using slightly different terminology, certain musicologists stated that these transformations greatly enhance the affective impact of the melodies. 4. It was hypothesized that although the frequent use of regressive transformations is insufficient to explain the musical creative process, it may be related to our judgments of musical greatness in a manner not yet understood. 5. It was speculated that a musical theme represents an affect which temporarily activates some unconscious conflict. In listening, we participate in the temporary regression offered by the primary-process transformations of the thematic material and achieve a temporary mastery over this conflict. This mastery is experienced as aesthetic pleasure by the ego.

Note: Stanley M. Friedman PH.D., M.D. worked at the Department of Psychiatry, Mount Sinai Hospital, New York, when he wrote this article, first published in the Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association, 1960, 8: 427-449. Permission to translate and reprint the article is given by International Universities Press, through Mark Patterson and Associates, on behalf of The American Psychoanalytic Association. The article is translated into the Danish language by Lars Ole Bonde.

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