Goin' Home
Melody from the New World in Tristes Tropiques
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 10613835 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Amy Wygant |
| Year | 1989 |
| Volume | 104 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 899 |
| Publication date | 1989-09-01 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Modern Language Notes (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0149-6611 • E-ISSN: 2326-1978 |
| Publisher | JSTOR (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.2307/2905270 |
| OpenAlex | W2331497998 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 2 |
Who has never been taunted, tantalized, chagrined and annoyed by the music that settles itself in the head and obstinately refuses to be forgotten? It is the wisp of a popular tune, the theme song from Rawhide, the clarinet part of the Mozart quintet. It will not leave: it accompanies us on our daily rounds like some secret sharer, yet rarely is it complete. In its very obsessive return, it participates in forgetfulness, and that is part of its annoyance, part of its aggression, part of its message and allure. Maybe it is just the rhythm of Le Sacre, or just the text of some Top Forties single, or just the harmonic progressions of a Beethoven development section. Lacking integrity, demonstrably partial, the music tightens its grip upon us and makes us mad in a certain limited but nevertheless accurate way. But it is usually neither rhythm nor text nor harmony nor any one of numerous other fields of musical presence which returns to lodge itself behind the eyes and between the ears. It is melody which haunts us. And it is melody which haunted Claude LeviStrauss on the plateau of the central Mato Grosso of Brazil in 1938. Like the rest of us, he is annoyed, perplexed, and obsessed by the tune in his head. In the long process of forgetting which is Tristes Tropiques,l the melody participates in a general dynamic of anti-memoir. Levi-Strauss sets down the events of the 1930's only
Art · Geography · History · Music History and Culture · Musicology and Musical Analysis
| Citations per year | 0.1 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2006 - 2022 (17) |
| Highly cited | No |