Functional Analogies: Hans Keller's Wordless Functional Analysis as a Theory of Musical Comparison

Abstract

A composer assembling movements of a string quartet; a teaching artist presenting stylistically diverse approaches to writing melodies; a recommendation-algorithm-assisted DJ choosing the order of a radio program: all rely on assumptions about how listeners perceive, learn from, and emotionally respond to commonalities and differences in the flow of music in time. But few musicians and curators make explicit their theories of how musical comparison works in the mind. Writer and broadcaster Hans Keller (1919-1985) was a notable exception. In addition to publishing and lecturing on the topic, he composed out his theory of comparison in the form of “Wordless Functional Analyses,” performable instrumental interludes that point the ear to sounding relationships using music alone. What was his theory, how does it compare to cognitive models of similarity and difference perception that have emerged since his death, and what can a close study of his work teach us about the practice of organizing disparate stretches of music to produce meaning and promote learning? Chapter 1 of this thesis combines published and unpublished writings from Keller’s archive to position him as an early thinker in music psychology, and to infer and outline his cognitive theory of musical comparison, which remained incomplete. Chapters 2 and 3 use various psychological and computational models of musical similarity to critique and to propose re-compositions of passages from Keller’s wordless analyses. These critiques produce insights about how cognitive theories of similarity and difference manifest in various strategies for setting up musical examples for comparison and appreciation. In Chapter 4, I draw on those insights to examine Keller’s own integration of wordless analysis into concert planning and to appraise present-day radio programming activities that involve musical comparison facilitation. My study uses psychological literature to provide a novel viewpoint on Keller’s most important creative output and to position Functional Analysis as a possible model for contemporary public musicology activities. It also articulates critical gaps in similarity and expectation research that might be addressed by a more Kellerian theoretical foundation centered on the context-bound nuances of making musical comparisons and by empirical investigations of analogical reasoning in music.