Frequently when we enjoy music, we simply revel in it instinctively. Occasionally, however, it is beneficial to analyze a song or another piece to comprehend its construction.
Consider the 1953 jazz classic “Satin Doll,” composed by Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn, whose nuanced framework merits attentive listening. As it turns out, MIT Professor Emeritus Samuel Jay Keyser, a renowned linguist and enthusiastic trombonist, has carefully examined the piece.
To Keyser, “Satin Doll” is a brilliant illustration of what he terms the “same/except” framework in art. A straightforward rhyme, like “rent” and “tent,” serves as another instance of this structure, given their shared rhyming sound coupled with differing initial consonants.
In “Satin Doll,” Keyser remarks, both the musical composition and the lyrics incorporate a “same/except” structure. For example, the rhythm of the first two measures of “Satin Doll” mirrors that of the latter two, yet the pitch ascends a step in measures three and four. A complex pattern of this nature persists throughout the entirety of “Satin Doll,” which Keyser refers to as “a musical rhyme scheme.”
When lyricist Johnny Mercer penned words for “Satin Doll,” he aligned the lyrical rhyme scheme with the musical one. One lyric for the initial four measures reads, “Cigarette holder / which wigs me / Over her shoulder / she digs me.” Other lines follow the identical structure.
“Both the lyrics and the melody exhibit the same rhyme structure in their respective mediums, namely, A-B-A-B,” states Keyser. “That’s how one composes lyrics. If you grasp the musical rhyme scheme and craft lyrics to correspond, you introduce a whole new level of repetition that enhances the experience.”
Currently, Keyser has released a new book focused on repetition in art and its cognitive effects on us, closely analyzing “Satin Doll” alongside numerous other works of music, poetry, painting, and photography. The book, “Play It Again, Sam: Repetition in the Arts,” is published by MIT Press. The title is partly a nod to Keyser’s own name.
Inspired by the Margulis study
The inception of “Play It Again, Sam” traces back several years when Keyser came across an experiment conducted by musicologist Elizabeth Margulis, detailed in her 2014 work, “On Repeat.” Margulis discovered that when she modified contemporary atonal compositions to incorporate repetition, audiences comprising both casual listeners and music theorists showed a preference for these revised versions over the originals.
“The Margulis experiment significantly spurred these ideas into existence,” Keyser explains. He then explored the theme of repetition across various art forms that included research on related cognitive activities, notably music, poetry, and visual art. For example, the brain possesses specific areas dedicated to recognizing faces, locations, and bodies. Keyser posits this is why, prior to the age of modernism, painting was predominantly mimetic.
Ideally, he suggests, it will become possible to study comprehensively how our brains process art — to discover if encountering repetition provokes an endorphin release, for instance. For the moment, Keyser theorizes that repetition involves what he dubs the 4 Ps: priming, parallelism, prediction, and pleasure. Essentially, perceiving a motif prepares for its repetition, granting audiences gratification when they recognize the recurrence.
With impressive depth, Keyser thoroughly examines how artists utilize repetition and contemplate it, from “Beowulf” to Leonard Bernstein, from Gustave Caillebotte to Italo Calvino. Some artworks employ exact repetition of elements, such as the Homeric epics; others implement the “same/except” mechanism.
Keyser has a profound interest in visual art reflecting the “same/except” concept, exemplified by Andy Warhol’s iconic “Campbell Soup Cans.” This piece displays four rows of eight soup cans, all identical — save for the type of soup depicted on each can.
“Discovering this ‘same/except’ repetition in a piece of art evokes pleasure,” Keyser remarks.
But what accounts for this? Numerous experimental studies, Keyser observes, indicate that frequently exposing a subject to an image — such as an infant’s exposure to its mother’s face — helps forge a bond of affection. This is the “mere exposure” phenomenon proposed by social psychologist Robert Zajonc, whom Keyser references in the book, having investigated in detail “the repetition of an arbitrary stimulus and the mild affection people eventually develop for it.”
This phenomenon also elucidates why manufacturers design advertisements featuring just their product names: Seen frequently enough, viewers form a connection with the name. Regardless of the mechanism linking repetition with pleasure, and whatever its initial function, Keyser contends that many artists have effectively harnessed it, recognizing that audiences appreciate repetition in poetry, visual art, and music.
A shadow dog in Albuquerque
Within the book, Keyser’s focus on repetition leads to distinctive interpretive insights. In one chapter, he delves into Lee Friedlander’s renowned photograph, “Albuquerque, New Mexico,” a street scene characterized by a chaotic array of signs, wires, and buildings, often interpreted symbolically: It represents the American West frontier overwhelmed by postwar concrete and commerce.
Keyser, however, perceives the Friedlander photo from a contrasting perspective. There exists a dog positioned near the center; adjacent to it is the shadow of a street sign. Keyser thinks the shadow resembles the dog, creating a playful repetition within the image.
“This specific photograph is essentially two images that rhyme,” Keyser explains. “They’re the same, except that one depicts the dog and the other the shadow. That’s why the photograph brings pleasure, for even if you’re not fully aware of it, you perceive the repetition. Experiencing repetition in art evokes enjoyment.”
“Play It Again, Sam” has garnered acclaim from practitioners within the arts, among others. George Darrah, principal drummer and arranger for the Boston Pops Orchestra, has described the book as “extraordinary” for its “illustration of how poetry, music, painting, and photography elicit pleasure in their audiences by leveraging the brain’s capacity to recognize repetition.” He further asserts that “Keyser possesses a remarkable talent for simplifying complex ideas, making challenging material easily digestible.”
In several respects, “Play It Again, Sam” encapsulates the quintessential intellectual perspective of an MIT linguist. For decades, research linked to MIT linguistics has identified universal structures of human language, revealing significant similarities amidst the apparent diversity of global languages. Here too, Keyser discerns patterns that aid in organizing an ostensibly limitless realm of art. “Play It Again, Sam” represents a quest for structure.
When asked about this, Keyser acknowledges the impact of his longstanding field on his current intellectual pursuits, while recognizing that his insights into art are part of a broader inquiry into our creations and minds.
“I’m applying a linguistic mindset to art,” Keyser states. “But I’m also directing an analytical focus toward the innate tendencies of the brain. The goal is to explore how our aesthetic sensibilities are influenced by cognitive processes. I aim to demonstrate how art can leverage the brain’s ability to derive pleasure from functions unrelated to art.”