ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book emphasises that form is all a dynamic process, outlining three distinct conceptions of musical form by Robert Fink, Jerrold Levinson and Jonathan Kramer which explicitly problematise the idea of a single, overarching hierarchy, constructed in a listener's mind over the course of a piece. The book draws ideas from other fields as authors relate to the given piece, whilst the connective chapters each contain a shorter analytical case study of their own. It explores the important role played by expression within the creation of coherent experiences. The book also explores three different ways of approaching these layered relationships: Deleuze and Guattari's concept of the rhizome labyrinth, Gibson's already mentioned theory of affordances, and Greimas's semiotic square. It traces the varying interactions implicit in Kaija Saariaho's 'parametric' approach to her compositional material.
