Analyses - Intro

Analyses of musical works, using OMS
Introduction

These analyses have been written by Isaac Malitz, except where otherwise noted.

The primary purpose of these analyses is to "show what OMS can do" as a tool for analyzing music. We believe that the reader will find these analyses to be:

    - stimulating, interesting
    - enlightening, maybe even surprising at times
    - comprehensible
    - succinct and information-rich (high information content in relatively few words)
    - ear-opening, expansive

It is not critical that the reader agree with what the analyses say. However, when the reader disagrees, we hope that the OMS analysis will be useful reference-point for developing one's own opinions.

The analyses are not claimed to be "definitive". Another user of OMS might write up some of the analyses quite differently.

In developing these analyses, we followed certain guidelines. Specifically, in each musical analysis we try to address these questions:

    [a] What does the music do?
    [b] How does the music do it?
    [c] What kinds of deep thoughts are stimulated by the music?

Regarding [c]: From the OMS perspective, it appears that most (perhaps all) music stimulates a certain amount of deep thought, at least at a primitive level. (Even a simple pleasant melody has something of a miraculous aspect to it: "Where do melodies come from?" "Why does this melody make me feel good?"). So it seems appropriate in an analysis to acknowledge and articulate some of the deep thought that is stimulated by a piece of music.

In developing the analyses, we use the OMS model directly; and at times we use principles and ideas from the Society of Mind model of human intelligence (SocietyOfMind is one part of the foundation of OMS).