The rich thread on music, preening & allusion reminds me once again of
the essay "Conversation about Dante", where OM describes Dante's
"keyboard of references" as a giant set of Bachique organ-pipes: he
talks about the quick leaps from one coagulation of images to another,
the verbal material quickly assembling & dissolving with the wave of
the conductor's baton (the "logopaeic" motive).

I have a somewhat different perspective on the role of echoes & allusions
from that which Peter put forth (in his post "Sir & Lady whatever").
Certainly, from a critical or readerly perspective, there is a clear
danger of pedantry or fixation on the reified text, as opposed to its
"being in the world". But I think if looked at through the writer's eyes,
the use of echoes is a technique for SHARPENING whatever statement is to be
imparted by the poem. Ie. they're used to convey truth AND beauty.
Thus if you penetrate beneath the "veil of obscure speech" in Dante
or Celan, you see how an image or scene imported from a heavily-weighted
prior scene or image adds emotional/intellectual intensity - sharpens,
often by irony, the meaning of the depicted action or landscape.
The effort to uncover the meaning of an initially puzzling set of
chord-changes adds weight to the meaning once it's found (sometimes
this takes centuries to accomplish). Same effect as a dramatic
unveiling or peripeteia.

Jazz people do something similar by re-fashioning a standard with an
entirely new emotional coloring.

We have trouble doing this kind of hermeneutics, partly because unlike
in ancient or medieval times, we are flooded with text rather than working
with a few Canonical stories. This is not a sigh for days gone by: but
recognizing the difference might help us understand what kind of echoing is
going on NOW (& maybe what could be attempted).

I do not think that the discovery & noting of allusions is mere pedantic
snipe hunting: but I do think it's only the beginning. Anarchic riffing
& sampling can get boring very VERY fast. So can snipe hunting (there
are no snipes to be found). But reading for the depth of a sound is a
"real time" activity in which the hidden sense enriches the emotional
timbre of the actual performance.

Yes, I'm back, because I started this thread (on Feb 20) & I can't stop
reading the archive about it.

Henry