Repetition as a principle of mythological thinking and music of the twentieth century

Abstract

Art of the 20th century is characterized by the rise of the mythical thought and transformation of the myth into an artistic creativity. In music we can encounter manifestations of conscious and unconscious neo-mythologism in various forms. The methodological foundations of our text are concepts by Claude Lévi-Strauss, Carl Gustav Jung, Gilles Deleuze or Victoria Adamenko. The text focuses on the basic identification of the repetition as a mythological sign and its manifestation in the music of the 20th century (Arnold Schoenberg, George Crumb, minimal music etc.). Constitutive principle of repetition in music is connected with categories such as musical space and time, contrast, difference, musical thought.

Keywords

• repetition
• neo-mythologism
• myth
• archetype
• musical symbol
• contemporary music