ABSTRACT
The pattern of interaction, of course, is neither the image nor the essence, and indeed it does not fit well into the cave metaphor, for it is less ethereal than D-ishness and maybe more useful. If the pieces each imperfectly imitate D-ishness, the individuating imperfections of imitation are what create the intermodulation. Thus we know that whatever D-ishness is, its logic does not prevent two imitations of it from sharing a structure of differently effected musical functions. The inextricability of a section from its context and of the context from the piece, means that talk of the interaction of any two sections may lead to a kind of blind-men-and-the-elephant situation. But the interaction between the symphony's horn solo and any particular violin cadenza in the concerto is not limited to this common description. According to one rather frivolous theory of Plato's cave metaphor, the composer in this case, Brahms gets an idea of D-ishness.
