[Discourse of music and inscription of the father's name in the "Wohltemperierten Klavier" by Johann Sebastian Bach]

Journal/Book: Psyche (Stuttg). 1996; 50: 218-43.

Abstract: The author tries to develop a comprehension of music based on a difference between the two systems of writing in music and language. Music offers no fixed connection between signifier and signification as they are brought about in language by sequences of letters. Therefore the name-of- the-father, whose recognition guarantees psychic stability, cannot be introduced into the discourse of music. The " Welltempered Piano" by Johann Sebastian Bach shows how the composer reacts to this dilemma: in a biographical and music-historical difficult situation, Bach, in a cryptographical way, interweaves his proper name with the score and thereby replaces the missing name-of-the-father.

Keyword(s): Famous Persons|. Music|HI. Psychoanalytic Interpretation|

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