ABSTRACT

This conclusion presents some closing thoughts on the key concepts discussed in the preceding chapters of this book. The book presents three overlapping statements about coherence that emerge from the accounts along with three further questions that point to areas that author could not discuss in depth because of the pragmatic constraints of space, focus or expertise, but that offer fertile ground for future research in this sphere. The book presents the importance of creative metaphors of analytical approach, and points briefly to Laurence Zbikowski's account of 'multimodal metaphors' as illustrative of the active role these concepts can play in our experience of this music. It deals in particular with the problem of analytical segmentation amid this low-level, spaghetti-like tangle of interlocking processes and relationships. A similar emphasis on coherence as an active process was at the root of this book which focused on larger-scale formal concerns.