Why we enjoy works of art, and how repetition plays a central part in the pleasure we receive. Leonard Bernstein, in his famous
Norton Lectures, extolled repetition, saying that it gave poetry its musical qualities and that music theorists' refusal to take it seriously did so at their peril.
Play It Again, Sam takes Bernstein seriously. In this book, Samuel Jay Keyser explores in detail the way repetition works in poetry, music, and painting. He argues, for example, that the same cognitive function underlies both how poets write rhyme in metrical verse and the way songwriters like Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn ("Satin Doll") and Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart ("My Funny Valentine") construct their iconic melodies. Furthermore, the repetition found in these tunes can also be found in such classical compositions as Mozart's
Rondo alla Turca and his
German Dances, as well as in galant music in general.
The author also looks at repetition in paintings like Gustave Caillebotte's
Rainy Day in Paris, Andy Warhol's
Campbell's Soup Cans, and Jackson Pollock's drip paintings. Finally, the photography of Lee Friedlander, Roni Horn, and Osmond Giglia
--Giglia's
Girls in the Windows is one of the highest-grossing photographs in history--are all shown to be built on repetition in the form of visual rhyme.
The book ends with a cognitive conjecture on why repetition has been so prominent in the arts from the Homeric epics through Duke Ellington and beyond. Artists have exploited repetition throughout the ages. The reason why is straightforward:
the brain finds the detection of repetition innately pleasurable. Play It Again, Sam offers experimental evidence to support this claim.
為什麼我們喜愛藝術作品，以及重複在我們所獲得的快樂中扮演的核心角色。
Leonard Bernstein在他著名的Norton Lectures中讚揚重複，指出它賦予詩歌音樂特質，而音樂理論家對此不予重視則是自掘墳墓。
Play It Again, Sam認真對待Bernstein的觀點。在這本書中，Samuel Jay Keyser詳細探討了重複在詩歌、音樂和繪畫中的運作方式。他舉例指出，詩人在韻律詩中寫作韻腳的方式與像Duke Ellington和Billy Strayhorn（《Satin Doll》）以及Richard Rodgers和Lorenz Hart（《My Funny Valentine》）這些作曲家創作其標誌性旋律的方式背後，存在相同的認知功能。此外，這些旋律中的重複也可以在莫札特的Rondo alla Turca和他的German Dances等古典作品中找到，還有一般的優雅音樂。
作者還考察了重複在繪畫中的表現，例如Gustave Caillebotte的Rainy Day in Paris、Andy Warhol的Campbell's Soup Cans以及Jackson Pollock的滴畫。最後，Lee Friedlander、Roni Horn和Osmond Giglia的攝影作品——Giglia的Girls in the Windows是歷史上最賺錢的照片之一——都顯示出以視覺韻律的形式建立在重複之上。
本書以一個認知推測結束，探討為什麼重複在從荷馬史詩到Duke Ellington及其後的藝術中如此突出。藝術家們在各個時代都利用重複。原因很簡單：大腦天生對重複的檢測感到愉悅。 Play It Again, Sam提供了實驗證據來支持這一主張。
Samuel Jay Keyser is a theoretical linguist. He is Peter de Florez Emeritus Professor of the Linguistics and Philosophy faculty, and former Associate Provost at MIT. He has authored numerous books and scientific publications and is Editor-in-Chief of the journal Linguistic Inquiry. He is also a jazz trombone player in the Boston area.
