Metamorphoses: GPSR Kontakt Metamorphoses: Problem-Solving Strategies in Musical Structure - Hardcover

Metamorphoses uses problem-solving to explain action and digression in major musical compositions. It focuses on three criteria: identity, implementation and intrusion. Against normative categories of form and style, problem-solving evaluates powerful innovation in musical works, and in larger contexts of art, literature and the history of ideas.

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.